Method and System for Providing Network Based Target Advertising and Encapsulation

ABSTRACT

A telecommunication system implements a method for providing a targeted on-line advertisement to a user accessing a content provider node of the system. An ad is requested from a user node. A content provider is identified at a right of first refusal ad service based on the ad request. At least one demographic corresponding to the user node is determined. Whether an ad corresponds to the determined demographic is determined. A default ad service is determined based on the content provider. The ad request is passed to a default ad service. Retrieved content is processed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/018,111, filed on Sept. 4, 2013, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/456,826, filed on Jun. 6, 2003, whichclaims the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/172,492, filedJun. 14, 2002, U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/298,329, filedJun. 14, 2001, U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/333,324, filedNov. 26, 2001, U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/362,297, filedMar. 7, 2002, and PCT Application Serial No. PCT/US02/18791, filed Jun.14, 2002, all entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING NETWORK BASEDTARGET ADVERTISING.” The entirety of each application is herebyincorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to the advertising of goods andservices. More specifically, the present invention relates to thetargeted distribution of advertisements over a network.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The networked world, particularly the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW),has provided numerous new opportunities, formats and mediums for theadvertisement of product and services. Early forms of advertising werenot based upon a geographic location or demographic profile of theviewers and listeners of the advertisements. Over the past severalyears, there has been a movement to target advertising toward viewersand listeners based on their geographic location and demographicprofile. The present invention is an advancement of this movement.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aspect of the invention provides a method for targeting advertisingover a network. The method includes: receiving an ad request from a usernode at a right of first refusal ad service, identifying the contentprovider at the right of first refusal ad service based on the adrequest, determining at least one demographic corresponding to the usernode, determining whether an ad corresponds to the determineddemographic, determining a default ad service based on the contentprovider, initiating a pass request at the right of first refusal adservice based on the ad and default ad service determinations, passingthe ad request to the default ad service based on the pass request, andprocessing retrieved content.

Another aspect of the invention provides a system for providing targetedads over a network. The system includes: a user node, a content providernode in communication with the user node via a network, a right of firstrefusal ad service node in communication with the user node and thecontent provider node via the network, and a default ad service node.The user node requests content from the content provider node based oninput from a user, receives provided content including right of firstrefusal ad service ad request code, issues a first ad request based onthe right of first refusal ad service ad request code, wherein the firstad request requests an ad from the right of first refusal ad service,receives default ad service ad request code, issues a second ad requestbased on the default ad service ad request code. The content providernode provides the content to the user node including the right of firstrefusal ad service ad request code. The right of first refusal adservice node receives the first ad request, identifies the contentprovider node associated with the first ad request, processes retrievedcontent, determines whether a right of first refusal ad service adcorresponds to a determined demographic corresponding to the user node,determines a default ad service based on the identified contentprovider, and passes the first ad request based on the correspondingdemographic determination and the default ad service determination. Thedefault ad service receives the second ad request.

Another aspect of the invention provides a computer readable storagemedium having code for execution by a processor to perform a method fortargeting ads over a network. The method includes: receiving an adrequest from a user node at a right of first refusal ad service,identifying the content provider at the right of first refusal adservice based on the ad request, determining at least one demographiccorresponding to the user node, determining whether an ad corresponds tothe determined demographic, determining a default ad service based onthe content provider, initiating a pass request at the right of firstrefusal ad service based on the ad and default ad servicedeterminations, passing the ad request to the default ad service basedon the pass request, and processing retrieved content.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of atelecommunication system of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a contentprovider node of the FIG. 1 telecommunication system;

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of an adselection node of the FIG. 1 telecommunication system;

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a useridentification node of the FIG. 1 telecommunication system;

FIG. 5 illustrates fictitious advertising regions within the state ofIllinois;

FIG. 6 illustrates one embodiment of an advertisement definition page;

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of an advertisement destinationdefinition page;

FIG. 8 illustrates one embodiment of an advertisement quantity andduration definition page;

FIG. 9 illustrates one embodiment of an advertisement web site andcategory definition page;

FIG. 10 illustrates a first embodiment of an advertisement geographiclocation definition page;

FIG. 11 illustrates a second embodiment of an advertisement geographiclocation definition page;

FIG. 12 illustrates one embodiment of an advertisement demographicdefinition page;

FIG. 13 illustrates one embodiment of an advertisement coupon page;

FIG. 14 illustrates one embodiment of a client extranet login page;

FIG. 15 illustrates one embodiment of a web site category anddemographic interface;

FIG. 16 illustrates one embodiment of an administrative extranet homepage;

FIG. 17 illustrates one embodiment of an advertisement details page;

FIG. 18 illustrates one embodiment of a publication details page;

FIG. 19 illustrates one embodiment of an account details page;

FIG. 20 illustrates one embodiment of an advertiser details page;

FIG. 21 illustrates one embodiment of a web site details page;

FIG. 22 illustrates one embodiment of an administrative utility page;

FIG. 23 illustrates one embodiment of a web site administrator's page;

FIG. 24 illustrates a flowchart representative of a base advertisementdelivery method of the present invention as implemented by the FIG. 1telecommunication system;

FIG. 25 illustrates a flowchart representative of a web-basedadvertisement delivery method of the present invention as implemented bythe FIG. 1 telecommunication system;

FIG. 26 is a block diagram of one embodiment in accordance with thepresent invention of computer software employed in the FIG. 1telecommunication system;

FIG. 27 illustrates a flow chart of a first embodiment of an advertiserindexing routine in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 28 illustrates various flow charts of a first embodiment inaccordance with the present invention for displaying advertisementswithin the FIG. 1 telecommunication system;

FIG. 29 illustrates a flow chart of a first embodiment of advertisementselection routine in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 30 illustrates fictitious advertising regions within the state ofIllinois; and

FIGS. 31-36 illustrate a variety of the business arrangements betweenservers of the ad selection node and the content provider node of theFIG. 1 telecommunication system.

FIG. 37 illustrates a targeted ad wrapper.

FIG. 38 illustrates a multiple layer targeted ad wrapper.

FIGS. 39-41 illustrate one embodiment of a method for displaying thecontents of a targeted ad wrapper.

FIG. 42 illustrates one embodiment of a targeted ad wrapper creationpage.

FIG. 43 illustrates one embodiment of a keyword definition page.

FIG. 44 illustrates a flow chart of a first embodiment for targeting adsto a content page by keyword.

FIG. 45 illustrates one embodiment of a web page on a standard web site.

FIG. 46 illustrates a flow chart of one embodiment of a process by whichan individual creates or selects a page specific advertisement.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, a telecommunication system 100 of the presentinvention is shown. Telecommunication system 100 comprises a network 110which is the media used to provide communications links between thevarious nodes of telecommunication system 100. Links through network 110may include permanent connections (e.g., wire or fiber optic cables),temporary connections made through telephone or wireless communications,or various nodes of telecommunication system 100 may actually be hostedon the same physical hardware platform removing the necessity of anetwork link altogether. Network 110 may be in the form of public orprivate connections available over the Internet, an extranet, anintranet, a hard-wired local area network (LAN), a hard-wired wide areanetwork (WAN), a wireless LAN a wireless WAN, and/or other forms aswould occur to those having ordinary skill in the art.

A user node 120 of telecommunication system 100 operates to facilitatecommunications ofrequested information in audio form and/or visual formbetween a user of user node 120 and one of the other nodes oftelecommunication system 100. Conventional devices, apparatuses andsystems, such as for example, a cell phone 121, a personal digitalassistant 122, and a personal computer 123 as illustrated, can beutilized within user node 120 to establish such communications. Othersuitable conventional devices, apparatuses and systems not illustratedinclude networked household appliances (e.g., televisions,refrigerators, etc.), digital or satellite radio systems, and others aswould occur to those having ordinary skill in the art.

A content provider node 130 includes one or more servers 131 forconventionally communicating with the other nodes of telecommunicationsystem 100. In one embodiment, content provider node 130 includes aconventional content server 131 a and an associated database DBI asillustrated in FIG. 2 for providing requested information to user node130. The requested information can be in a variety of forms, such as,for example, a static or dynamic web page, a radio or video broadcast ornarrowcast, a page or segment of wireless application protocol (WAP)content, a short messaging service (SMS) message, or other forms ofnetwork information as known in the art. Accordingly, content server 131a can include suitable hardware platforms and software modules tooperate as a web site server, a radio broadcast server, etc.

Content provider node 131 can further operate to communicate one or moreadvertisements with or as the requested information to user node 120 asdirected by an ad selection node 140. These advertisements can bemanaged by conventional content server 131 a and associated databaseDBI, a third party ad server 131 b and an associated database DB2 asillustrated in FIG. 2 (e.g., a commercially accessible server by DoubleClick), or a distributed media server 131 c and an associated databaseDB3 as illustrated in FIG. 2 (e.g., a commercially available server byAkamai).

Referring again to FIG. 1, ad selection node 140 includes one or moreservers 141 for conventionally communicating with the other nodes oftelecommunication system 10. In one embodiment, ad selection node 140includes a targeted ad server 141 a and an associated database DB4 asillustrated in FIG. 3 for managing a selection of which advertisement oradvertisements are to be communicated with the requested informationfrom content provider node 131 to user node 120 in accordance with thepresent invention. Accordingly, targeted ad server 141 a includesconventional hardware platforms and software modules for a networkoperation of targeted ad server 141 a as well as additional hardwareplatforms and software modules for implementing various methods of thepresent invention as will subsequently described herein.

Concurrent with or alternative to content provider node 131 (e.g., thirdparty ad server 131 b and distributed media server 131 c shown in FIG.2), ad selection node 140 can further operate to communicate one or moreadvertisements with the requested information to user node 120. Theseadvertisements can be managed by a conventional database server 141 band associated databases DBS and DB6 as illustrated in FIG. 3. In oneembodiment, database DBS contains information related to advertisers andtheir ads. Individual ads are associated with the zip codes in whichthey are to be served. Advertisers can purchase the advertising spacefor the individual advertisements based on a region of commercial orpolitical influence. In one embodiment, zip codes, or other specifiedgeographical area, within a selected region can be identified as part ofthe advertising area for that particular advertiser. For example, asexemplary shown in FIG. S, a business wishing to introduce a new productor service campaign in the state of Illinois may wish to do so within aregion of commercial influence (RCI) of a fictitious newspaper. Thebusiness would then have one or more related digitized advertisementsdesignated to be served into zip codes within the RCI (e.g., 60200,60203, 60204, 60206, 60208, and 60210). Also by example, an ad agencywishing to introduce a series of ads in the state of Illinois within aregion of residential districts (RRD) such as the greater Chicago areawould have one or more related digitized advertisements designated to beserved into zip codes within the RRD. By further example, a politicalcampaign wishing to introduce a series of campaign ads in the state ofIll. within a corresponding political district (PD) would have one ormore related digitized advertisements designated to be served into zipcodes within political district PD.

For every zip code in the United States, the databases maintain recordsidentifying the advertisers that have purchased some number ofimpressions in that zip code, where an impression is defined as thedistribution of an advertising package to user node 120 (FIG. 1) throughtheir interaction with a content provider node 130 (FIG. 1). Eachadvertiser record includes a unique identifier for the advertiser, keysrelating them to sold advertising packages, the date and time of each adimpression, the number of impressions that should be served in eachrecognized timeframe, and the maximum number of impressions that may beserved in each recognized timeframe. A timeframe mentioned may includeany span of time one wishes to distinguish. A timeframe may be a month,week, day, hour, etc. The advertisers are simply mapped into not onlyeach zip code or other geographical area of importance, but also eachtime frame in which they would like to distribute impressions.

In one embodiment, database DB6 contains data gathered by the mostrecent U.S. census. This information is organized in records associatedwith each zip code in the United States. Each record within database DB6includes several columns of information about each zip code. A first setof columns includes information related to the percentage of the totalpopulation within the zip code that has an ethnic designation of White,Black, Asian/Pacific, or Hispanic Origin. A second set of columnsincludes information related to the percentage of the total populationwithin the zip code that falls into the following age categories: 0-4;5-9; 10-14; 15-19; 20-24; 25-44; 45-64; 65-84; 85; and older. Anothercolumn of information is related to the median age of the populationwithin the zip code. An additional column includes information relatedto the male/female ratio within the zip code. A further column includesinformation related to the per capita income within the zip code.Another group of columns includes information related to the percentageof the total population within the zip code that falls into each of thefollowing annual income categories: less than $15,000; $15,000 to$24,000; $25,000 to $49,999; $50,000 to $99,999; $100,000 to $149,999;and $150,000 or more. And a further group of columns includesinformation related to the percentage of the total population within thezip code making use of financial services such as home loans, automobileloans, investments, and retirement plans.

Referring again to FIG. 1, a user identification node 150 includes oneor more servers 151 for conventionally communicating with the othernodes of telecommunication system 10. In one embodiment, useridentification node 150 includes a conventional geographic locationserver 151 a and associated database DB7 for providing informationindicative of a geographic location of the user to ad selection node 140(e.g., a commercially available server by Quova, a global positioningsystem (GPS) enabled user node, or using cellular triangulation). Inanother embodiment, user identification node further includes aconventional demographic profile server 151 b and associated databaseDB8 for providing additional information indicative of a demographicprofile of the geographic location to ad selection node 140 (e.g., acommercially available server containing the most recent U.S. Census orthe like).

An advertiser node 160 of telecommunication system 100 operates tofacilitate communications of advertisements in audio form and/or visualform between an advertiser and the ad selection node 140. Conventionaldevices, apparatuses and systems, such as for example, a cell phone 161,a personal digital assistant 162, and a personal computer 163 asillustrated, can be utilized within advertiser node 160 to establishsuch communications. Other suitable conventional devices, apparatusesand systems not illustrated include networked household appliances(e.g., televisions, refrigerators, etc.), digital or satellite radiosystems, and others as would occur to those having ordinary skill in theart.

The advertiser may be the end advertiser of a product or service, amarketer, a publicist, a politician, any other similar party, or anyparty acting as an agent of the advertiser such as a media company,public relations company, advertising agency, or traditionalpublication. While the nodes of FIG. 1 are illustrated and described assolely communicating using network 110, this is only to be considered abest mode, and not limiting. Various nodes, where possible, maycommunicate using other forms of communication including phone, fax,in-person meetings, mail, and other forms known in the art. Further,while the nodes, and further their components make-up (e.g. servers,databases), are described as operating independently and on separateplatforms, it should be well understood by one skilled in the art thatvarious functions of the node or functions of the multiple nodes may beperformed on the same physical hardware, or spread in differentconfigurations, arrangements and architectures among the various nodes.

Extranet Interfaces for Advertisers

Ad selection node 140 (FIG. 1), in particular targeted ad server 141 a(FIG. 3) may include various interfaces for facilitating a communicationof an advertisement to ad selection node 140 by an advertiser (FIG. 1)or its agent. The advertiser may be a traditional publication, such asThe Glenview Announcements, which is a local newspaper for Glenview,Ill. The Glenview Announcements may be found to have a particular areaof commercial influence. The region of commercial influence may be anycombination of zip codes, cities, counties, states, or othergeographical region. In one embodiment, the distribution area of thetraditional media version of a publication may define the area ofcommercial influence for that publication. Commercial influence may besome region other than the distribution area of traditional mediaversion of a publication as determined by market conditions, geographicpreferences, or other business and economic factors. The GlenviewAnnouncements may have, for example, an area of commercial influence ofzip code 60025. Using various interfaces with ad selection node 140,personnel at the Glenview Announcements may create a digitized versionof an advertisement that may appear in the traditional media version ofits publication. The Glenview Announcements may also define that thisadvertisement should only be shown within its area of influence. In oneembodiment, the advertiser may also define what sites or category ofsites an advertisement may appear on. For example, the advertisement mayonly appear on news sites and the user (FIG. 1) may then access contentprovider node 130 (e.g., content server 131 a) via user node 120. Oneexample might be viewing the cnn.com website using a web browser onpersonal computer 123 (FIG. 1). If user identification node 150 (FIG. 1)determines that user is accessing the system from within zip code 60025,the digitized advertisement created by the Glenview Announcements may beserved. This system may allow traditional publications to sell andbroadcast network advertisements that may be displayed only within itsregion of influence.

The following FIGS. 6-11 illustrate various interfaces for creating anetwork-based advertisement. The illustrated interfaces may be omitted,rearranged, or added in a system of the present invention withoutstraying from the intent of defining the properties necessary or usefulfor distributing an advertisement online. Advertisements may be directlyentered into a database or software program, may be entered via webinterface, or any other means known in the art.

FIG. 6 illustrates one embodiment of a web browser-based interface 200for beginning the process of defining an advertisement. Below mainheader 201 is subheader and navigation system 202. Main header 201 andsubheader and navigation system 202 may be shared throughout theadvertisement definition process. Subheader and navigation system 202may include of text or image based hypertext links to each step of theadvertisement definition process. The link's color, shading, shape, orsome other feature may indicate the active page of the process. Duringthe advertisement definition process, a user of the system may wish tochange a selection or setting from a previous page, or skip ahead in theprocess. Subheader and navigation system 202 may allow the user to moveto any portion of the process the user may edit. In one embodiment, someportions of the process may not be edited before others. A similarscheme to that indicating which page is active may be employed toindicate the steps of the process to which the user may navigate.

Below navigation system 202, an HTML form may present the user withoptions for defining an advertisement. Form input 203 may allow the userto select an advertiser for the advertisement being created. If anadvertiser has not been defined in the system, and is not held in adatabase of advertisers in ad selection node 140, the user may beprovided with a link 204, or some other means, to navigate to a form forthe creation of a new advertiser. After the advertiser for theadvertisement being created has been selected in form input 203, theuser may define a file for use as, or in creation of, the advertisementin form input 205. A file may be specified directly in text, or astandard file-browsing dialog box may be employed. Files used mayinclude images of the graphics interchange (GIF), joint photographexperts group (JPEG), or any other image file format known in the art.Files used may also include an HTML page, a portion of an HTML page suchas a form, Flash executable, some form of streaming media, or any otherfile format that may be served over a network. After a file has beenspecified in form input 205, the user may define what type ofadvertisement they are creating by selecting from form input 206.Advertisement types may include banner, tower, pop-up, pop-under, SMSmessage, or any other type of advertisement known in the art. After theadvertisement type is selected, the user may proceed to the next step ofthe advertisement definition process. Some form of client-sidescripting, such as javascript, and/or server-side scripting may beemployed to ensure that all required form inputs 204-206 contain somelegitimate value. Similar client and/or server-side scripting may beemployed throughout the advertisement definition process, and throughoutany portion of the user interface employed in interaction with adselection node 140.

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a web-based interface 210 fordefining the destination of the advertisement. An advertisement maycontain a hyperlink, may in some way redirect a user, or in some wayprovide a means for the user to be directed, to another networkresource. This other network resource is the advertisement'sdestination. In one embodiment, the user may select that theadvertisement has no destination. Other destinations may include a webpage on the advertisers site, a web page on ad selection node 140, a webpage on some other site, an email link, or any other network resourceknown in the art. One embodiment allows a coupon to be defined, which isa configurable page on ad selection node 140 the details of which willbe discussed hereafter. On web-interface, the user may select the typeof network resource for the destination with form element 211. Iftheuser selects a URL destination, the user may specify that destination inform element 212. Ifthe user selects a coupon destination, the user mayspecify an image, or any other file type known in the art, for use increating the coupon using form element 213. After the destination hasbeen specified, the user may proceed to the next step of theadvertisement definition process.

FIG. 8 illustrates one embodiment of a web-interface 220 for definingthe quantity and/or duration that an ad should be displayed on adselection node 140. A standard method for defining the quantity and/orduration of a network advertisement is to specify a number ofimpressions, or the number of times the advertisement will be delivered.The user may specify the number of impressions in form input 221. In oneembodiment of the present invention the user may select a start date,which is the date on which the advertisement will begin its broadcast onad selection node 140. The start date may be entered using dateselection form elements 222. In one embodiment the user may specify astart time, which is the time of day an advertisement will begin itsbroadcast on ad selection node 140. The start time may be entered usingtime selection form elements 223. In one embodiment of the presentinvention the user may select an end date, which is the date on whichthe advertisement will end its broadcast on ad selection node 140. Theend date may be entered using date selection form elements 224. In oneembodiment the user may specify an end time, which is the time of day anadvertisement will end its broadcast on ad selection node 140. The starttime may be entered using time selection form elements 225. In oneembodiment, a time zone may be specified with the start time and endtime so that those times reflect the selected time zone. In oneembodiment the user may select that the start time and end time berelative to the time zone the ad may be served in. In this embodiment,if the advertisement may be served in multiple time zones, the ad mayactually have multiple start and end times. This would, in effect,cascade the start and end times in accordance with the selected timezones. In one embodiment, the user may specify only the number ofimpressions. In one embodiment the user may specify only a start and endtime during which an ad will be broadcast. In one embodiment the usermay select both the number of impressions and the start and end times.In this embodiment, should the advertisement be served up to the numberof impressions prior to the end time, it may automatically stop beingserved.

FIG. 9 illustrates one embodiment of a web-interface 230 for definingthe web sites or other network channels over which the advertisement maybe displayed. In one embodiment the user may select any combination ofsites and network channels available to ad selection node 140. In oneembodiment only the sites and network channels that support the type ofadvertisement specified on web-interface 200 (FIG. 6) will be displayed.In one embodiment, web sites or network channels may be organized intocategories based upon subject matter, user demographic, or some othermethod of categorization. The user may specify that all sites or networkchannels in a category may display the advertisement by selectingcategory form element 231. For example, the user may specify that theiradvertisement be displayed on all sports sites, or all sites relating towomen, or all news sites. In one embodiment, selecting category formelement 231 may cause individual web site and network channel formelements 232 to be selected. In one embodiment the user may deselectthose websites and network channels of form elements 232 on which shedoes not wish to display the advertisement. When specifying the websites, network channels, and categories over which an advertisementshould display, it may be useful to have some means of estimating theanticipated traffic over those web sites, channels, and categories. Inone embodiment, web-based interface 230 may contain or link to aweb-based sub-interface 237 for estimating impression traffic levels onweb sites, network channels, or categories. In one embodiment,sub-interface 237 may display a traffic level based upon the sites,channels, or categories selected on web-based interface 230. In oneembodiment the user may specify the sites, channels or categories forthe traffic report based on those selected in form elements 233. In oneembodiment, the traffic report may be more narrowly defined to aspecific geographic area. In one embodiment the geographic area may bethat defined for the advertisement's distribution, the details of whichwill be discussed hereafter. In one embodiment the geographic area maybe defined using form elements 234. In one embodiment the user mayselect the time period for which the traffic report should display usingform elements 235. In one embodiment the traffic report may include oneor all of the following statistics as shown, for example, in formelements 236: total number of impressions, percent of the total site,channel, or category impressions over the defined time period that aredisplayed in the defined geographic area, and percent of totalimpressions served on ad selection node 140 that fit the criteriadefined in sub-interface 237.

FIG. 10 illustrates one embodiment of a web-interface 240 for definingthe geographic area over which the advertisement may be displayed. Inone embodiment the user may select the country in which they wish toserve the advertisement using form element 241. Depending upon thecountry selected in form element 242, web-interface 240 may display inform element 242 the appropriate states, provinces, or other geographicregions contained within the country selected in form element 242. Againdepending on the region selected in form element 242, web-interface 240may display the next appropriate level of geographic regions within thearea specified in form element 242. These may be displayed in formelement 243. In one embodiment, the regions displayed in element 243 maybe counties. This process may continue in a like manner to form element244 which may display the appropriate cities, and to form element 245that may display the appropriate postal or zip codes. In one embodiment,multiple elements may be selected at each of the form element levels241-245. In one embodiment only multiple zip or postal codes may beselected. In one embodiment the user may stop at any point and thesystem will use the greatest level of geographic specificity indicated.In one embodiment the user may specify an area and then choose to addanother different area to the area already specified. In one embodimentthe user may save a defined area for use in later advertisementdefinitions. These defined areas may be made available on web-basedinterface 240. In one embodiment web-interface 240 will only display thegeographic areas the user may serve the advertisement into. Theseallowed areas may be based upon the primary or secondary status of theuser's organization, or any other rules established on ad selection node140.

FIG. 11 illustrates an alternative embodiment of a web-interface 240′for defining the geographic area over which the advertisement may bedisplayed. This embodiment is designed to the specific needs of an agentof the advertiser in the form of an advertising agency. Advertisingagencies may specify the geographic area over which the ad may bedisplayed using an interface that breaks a region into Designated MarketAreas (DMAs). DMA, a convention of the Nielson Media Research, isdefined by television viewing patterns, and is a commonly usedgeographic definition by advertising agencies. It is common practice inadvertising to run a copy test of a particular advertising campaign in adesignated geographic area, providing a mix of direct mail, television,radio, and other advertising mediums to gauge consumer response prior toa national or global rollout of the campaign. Often the designatedgeographic areas for the copy test are defined by DMA. Without thecapability to geographically target networked advertising, advertisingagencies have been unable to include this medium effectively in theircopy testing. By providing a geographically targeted ad server alongwith an interface breaking geography down into DMAs, advertisingagencies not only are able to include networked advertising in theircopy testing, but may do so in a manner that more closely and easilymaps to their current practices. Accordingly, interface 240′ may beprovided, supplying a graphical method, which may be in the form of aclickable map 246, of specifying the DMAs over which theiradvertisements should be displayed. Alternatively, a clickable area mayinclude campuses, airports, or within a certain proximity of business orother types oflocations.

FIG. 12 illustrates one embodiment of a web-interface 250 for definingthe end user demographics over which the advertisement may be displayed.The United States Census Bureau (USCB), among other similarinternational bodies, and certain commercial enterprises collect anddistribute demographic information. In one embodiment, ad selection node140 may hold demographic information, such as the USCB census data, andmay make it available to the user. This data may be used during thedefinition of an advertisement to specify the demographics over whichthe advertisement may be displayed. In one embodiment the user mayspecify the demographics they wish to target for the advertisement underinputs 251, and ad selection node 140 may use the USCB census data toselect for the user the geographic areas in which the selecteddemographics are prevalent. In one embodiment these selecteddemographics may narrow the geographic area defined on web-basedinterface 240. In one embodiment the user may choose not to indicate ageographic area specifically, but may only select the demographics theywish to target. Web-interface 250 may contain or link to a web-basedsub-interface 252 that may display the demographics associated withselected web sites, channels, or categories such as those in web-basedinterface 230.

Many of the advertisers using telecommunication system 250 may not havean active network presence. Advertisers may wish to specify some networklocation as the destination for their advertisement even in the casethat they do not have an active network presence. In one embodiment ofthe present invention the user defining the advertisement may wish tospecify a coupon as the destination of the advertisement as shown inform elements 605,615 on web-based interface 210 of FIG. 7.

One embodiment of a coupon 260, is illustrated in FIG. 13. In oneembodiment, a coupon may contain any combination of elements including;the advertiser's company name 261; an image or multimedia file 262; aspecific offer from the advertiser 263; restrictions 264 such as “notvalid with other coupons,” or “one coupon per customer”; a coupon code265 or a bar code 266 that may be used by the advertiser for generalcampaign tracking or the for tracking the specific use of that coupon; avalid or expiration date 267; a link or print image 268 that may causethe coupon to be printed. In one embodiment, ad selection node 140 maytrack and record data relating to what advertisements are served, whatadvertisements are clicked on, and in the case of coupons, whatadvertisements are printed out. In one embodiment, the tracking data mayinclude a timestamp representing when the advertisement was served,clicked on, printed, etc. The timestamp may be used to determine themost effective times to display advertisements, where effectiveness ismeasured by response level.

Several types of end-user may access ad selection node 140.Administrators or employees of consumer web sites, or any other sourceof content being served to the end user node of telecommunication system100, may wish to create, update or view information relating to theirparticipation in the system. Administrators or employees of mediacompanies, publications, or advertisers may wish to create, update orview information relating to their participation in the system.Administrators or employees of ad selection node 140 may wish to create,update or view information relating to their participation in thesystem. End users may wish to create, update or view informationrelating to their participation in the system. Many means may beprovided allowing full or restricted access to information on adselection node 140 including software application, direct access to thecommand line or operating system interface, web-based interface, or anyother means of interaction or interfacing known in the art. FIGS. 6-12illustrated web-based interfaces, all of which may be collectivelygathered into a secure web-based client extranet. In one embodiment,this may be a collection of HTML pages, accessible only when anappropriate user name and password combination is supplied. FIG. 14illustrates a web-interface 270 that may act as a log in page to theweb-based client extranet. Web-interface 270 may include form elements271 where the user may submit a user name and password. A user name andpassword recollection link 272 may be provided to help the user rememberher user name and password. In one embodiment, ad selection node 140 mayemail the user name and password to the user. Web-interface 270 may alsoallow the user to specify that the system automatically log them in onfollowing occasions by selecting form element 273.

As noted previously, various individuals, companies or other entitiesmay be allowed access to the ad server to define ads for networkpublication. In addition to the interfaces described for the newspapersand other traditional media companies, an interface may be providedspecifically for promotional or image and branding advertising agencies,individual branches of companies such as franchise owners or dealershipowners, and any of these interfaces may be provided or accessed throughan in-house website, or by portal sites such as Yahoo.com and AOL.Access may be granted and interfaces to the ad server may be provided toall of the above, any combination of the above, or none of the above.Advantages may be gained by specializing the interfaces to any or all ofthese entities.

One such specialized interface may include a design for use in thepolitical or government arena. A page that may be implemented in adifferent manner, for use in the political or government arena, isweb-interface 240 for defining the geographic area over which theadvertisement may be displayed. For example, a congressional candidatemay be presented with a web-interface that allows her to select thegeographic area for an ad based on congressional district. In oneembodiment, the geographic selection and other selections may be moregraphically based, so as to ease the user definition process. Thegeographic selection may be done by selecting regions on a map. The mapmay be broken down into the appropriate regions based upon theuser-state, congressional district, MSA, etc. As another example of aspecialized interface, web-interface 250 for defining end userdemographics may especially focus on key political demographicinformation such as political party affiliation.

Other special needs may be associated with ads for political candidates,or other advertisers. For example, the calls to action for user might beto donate money, volunteer, or find out more information regarding theadvertisers view or opinion on an issue. Interfaces and processes may bein place as part of ad selection node 140 that allow an advertiser toset up predefined or custom pages that achieve such ends as contactinformation collection for volunteers, credit card processing fordonations, or audio or video feeds. Continuing with the politicalcandidate example, templates for a web page, portion of a web page, orwhole site may be supplied to the advertiser along with the ability toinput, edit, and delete information regarding themselves, their parties,or their candidacy.

The interface and process of selecting site, geographic and demographictargeting information may be done separately, or in some degree ofconjunction. In one embodiment, the user may simply provide ademographic selection through demographic interface. Using census dataand/or demographics associated with websites, the geographic area inwhich to serve ads may be determined. For example, a user might not bepresented with the opportunity to specifically select the content sitesthey wish to have their ad appear on, but ad selection node 140 mayselect these sites based on the demographics of the desired audience, orbased on the geographic selection and what sites most consistently haveheavy traffic from that geographic area. In another embodiment,geographic information might not be specifically defined, but adselection node 140 may select the geography based on the selecteddemographics and demographic data associated with various geographicregions. The more information ad selection node 140 holds, gathers,receives, or gleans regarding the relationships between sites,geography, and demographics, the more powerful the interface may become.Demographic information regarding a site's visitors may be determined,through survey, poll, subscription information or other means.Demographic information regarding a geographic location may bedetermined through use and analysis of census information, poll data, orother sources. As ad selection node 140 collects impression logs it mayalso develop further information stores relating to the relationshipbetween individual site traffic and the geographic origination of the adrequests. This geographic information relating to site traffic may beanalyzed in conjunction with the previously mentioned censusinformation, etc. Each of these relationships may be used to expand,refine, or define the audience for a particular advertisement.

For example, a political candidate may be more familiar with thedemographics of the audience she wishes to reach, and the geographicarea of her constituency, rather than the sites on which she wishes tohave her message displayed. For the purpose of this example we will saythe message relates to “a woman's right to choose” and is geared towarda female audience. In this embodiment, the candidate may specify thegeographic area of her constituency, and specify that the ad should betargeted towards women. Ad selection node 140 may then specify that thisad should be served on sites such as iParenting.com, as iParenting.comhas collected demographic information relating to their audience thatsuggests that 98% of their audience is female. A more complicateddecision regarding the audience for this message might be including inthe audience a geographic location outside of the area of constituencybased on information such as the fact that an all-women's college existsin that geographic location, and based on the assumption that it isclose enough to the specified geographic location that it may beconsidered likely that some of the women there actually live in the areaof the constituency or may have some influence over someone who doeslive in the constituency. When making recommendations or decisions suchas these wherein the advertiser has not specified some aspect of the adserving parameters, the recommendations or decisions may either takeplace without the advertiser's knowledge or control, or may be presentedas suggestions, or available for editing to the advertiser.

By way of another example, consider a branch of the Hispanic DentalAssociation (HDA) wishing to advertise the availability of Hispanicdentists in their region. An interface may be provided on which thebranch of HDA specifies only their geographic region and that they wishto target Hispanics. Ad selection node 140 may narrow the geographicregion covered based upon a set or advertiser defined populationconcentration of Hispanics. In other words, the ad might only be servedinto zip codes with a population consisting of at least 10% Hispanics.The sites on which the ad will be broadcast may be selected in a mannersimilar to that described above, specified by the advertiser, or in anyother manner as would occur to one of ordinary skill in the art.

Interfaces may also be defined that allow the advertiser or agent of theadvertiser to specify predefined areas of particular note. For example,they may be allowed to select geographic regions surrounding points ofnote such as college campuses or airline hubs. Using such information apolitical candidate, for example, might specify that they wish to have arequest for volunteers message sent out around the college campuses intheir area. Other areas may be defined for specific advertisers such asfor the areas surrounding each of their stores, outlets, or franchiselocations. For example, an interface might be created for Subway givingthem the option to advertise surrounding individual restaurant locationsor groups of locations.

Various arrangements may also be implemented between the company holdingad selection node 140 and potential advertisers. Examples of potentialadvertisers may include: publications, media companies, web sites,advertising agencies, government bodies, corporations, franchisees ofcompanies, divisions of companies, individual locations of a largercompany, single location companies, organizations, charities, clubs,local retailers or service providers, or even individuals not in anydirect affiliation with a commercial or political venture. In oneembodiment the company holding ad selection node 140 may maintain allinterfaces for these potential advertisers. In another embodiment someor all of the interface may be held and or maintained by other internetsites, such as portals like yahoo.com, or they may be managed byadvertising agencies, or managed by franchised companies for theirfranchisees, or by companies for their use or use by their subsidiaries,individual divisions, branches or locations. Accounts on any of theseinterfaces may be automatically created at the request of the potentialadvertiser, or may be configured by an administrator of ad selectionnode 140 or an administrator of any service supporting interfaces withad selection node 140, by advertising agencies for their clients.

The process and interfaces described above for defining advertisementsmay allow for the party defining the ad to identify very specific termsunder which the ad may be served, and also may specify with a level ofacuity other aspects of the desired audience. In one embodiment a localowner of a franchise, for example McDonald's®, may have access to a sitefor creating ads held directly on ad selection node 140 and configuredby its administration, or in another embodiment the site may beavailable via a site run by an advertising agency or a section of adselection node 140 configured by an advertising agency. The advertisingagency may have no affiliation with said franchise, may be theiradvertiser of record, or may be employed specifically for their capacityto set up such interfaces to ad selection node 140 for franchisees. Thelocal owner of a McDonald's may wish to advertise a new sandwich we willterm the McCrispy. Using an interface to ad selection node 140 the localfranchise owner may select to only advertise in the immediate geographicarea. This may be based upon zip codes, city names, may be a predefinedarea for that particular local franchise location, or any other means ofspecifying that area. In order to reach consumers when they are mostinterested in the McCrispy, it may be specified that the ad run, forexample, only between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm, to attract a lunch crowd.The time of advertisement may be based on a situation such as this whereit caters to consumer needs, directly opposed to consumer needs in orderto speed up slow times, by the local franchise owner based upon internalfactors such as availability of employees to handle any additionalcustomer traffic, or any other reason. In one embodiment the localfranchise owner may also create a coupon destination for the McCrispy adthat may be printed out and brought to that franchise only, or it may bea coupon usable at all participating McDonald's locations. To furtherencourage a time specific response the coupon might have a timelimitation on it. For example, good between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm on thefollowing dates, February 4-February 11.

In another embodiment a company such as a commercial airline may haveaccess to an interface for ad selection node 140. Some means foradvertising “last-minute” availability of seats may be found in the art,such as on the airline's web site, or via promotional emails. These bothrequire consumers to have interacted with the airline previously. Onemeans for overcoming this disadvantage would be for the airline to beable to advertise last-minute availability of seats using standardinterne advertisements on a variety of sites. Previously this would havebeen a shotgun approach, the message reaching only a very few of theconsumers who might take advantage of such availability. Using aninterface to ad selection node 140 the airline may specify that anadvertisement only be broadcast in the origination and destinationcities for the available flight. In addition to this, the airline maywish to specify websites or categories of websites on which theiradvertisement may be broadcast. This selection may be based onhistorical demographics of the site's or category of site's users, orwhatever other basis chosen by the company creating the ad. As noted,commercial airlines may have last-minute fares they wish to advertise,or business class specials, or frequent flier miles specials. Continuingthe example, the airline might wish to advertise the last-minute faresor business class specials not only to the origination and destinationcities, but may also wish to advertise only to a business crowddemographic. Using an interface on ad selection node 140 the airline mayview historical demographics of various sites and categories and may forexample select to advertise on news sites and stock information sitesbased upon the information available on said interface indicating thatthese sites are primarily viewed by working people ages 25-40. Inanother embodiment the airline may wish to create a coupon destinationfor their advertisement. This coupon may be, for example, a voucher fora free beverage, a class upgrade, may have a specially generated coderequired to redeem the offer on the airline's site, or whatever theairline chooses to create.

In another embodiment, companies with disperse locations may wish toadvertise on the Internet. This may be companies such as health clubs(e.g. Bally Fitness), or vehicle manufacturers (e.g. Ford, GM). Acompany such as Ford holds sales both at the manufacturer level and atthe dealership level. Using an interface to ad selection node 140 Fordmay specify the distribution areas covered by each of their dealershipsas well as then aggregate the area over which all their dealerships areeasily accessible. These area definitions may be preloaded by anadministrator of ad selection node 140, may be loaded by an advertisingagency working on behalf of Ford, or any other entity. Using thesedefined areas Ford may then advertise sales at specific dealerships, orallow their dealerships to access ad selection node 140 and advertisethe sales themselves. Advertisements with a dynamic portion may becreated on which an area indicating the closest dealership is generatedspecifically based upon the determined location of the person viewingthe advertisement. A coupon destination may also be employed for suchpurposes.

Any variety of interfaces may be designed, making most easily availableto the particular business user the features of ad selection node 140most valuable to them. These features may include or exclude any of thead definition pages described previously. When used in concert thevarious capabilities may allow for extremely targeted advertising in theonline arena. For example a day care center in Evanston, Ill. may wishto advertise their services. Using an interface for local advertisersthis company might select to advertise only in zip code 60201, and thenmight also select to only advertise on iParenting.com, a site that hashistorically been trafficked 98% of the time by women. Selecting onlythese two factors the day care center has essentially narrowed theadvertisements audience to women in Evanston.

FIG. 15 illustrates one embodiment of a site and category selectioninterface 280 for helping advertisers deteiiiiine which site or categoryof sites they may wish to advertise on. The available sites may bebroken down into categories such as family 281, in which an individualsite 282 or sites may be listed such as iParenting.com. If one clicks onone of the available sites 282, the historical demographics 283 for thatsite may be displayed, such as the gender distribution, median age,education level, occupation, or others. Again, these demographics may beused in conjunction with time specificity and geographic location tofinely identify and target a desired audience.

In one embodiment, access to an advertisement definition section, asillustrated in FIGS. 6-11, may only be given to advertisers,publications or media companies registered with ad selection node 140.In one embodiment, advertisers may be given access to the advertisementdefinition section. In one embodiment, if an advertiser is given accessto the advertisement definition section, an administrator of adselection node 140 may approve or reject an advertisement before it isactivated on ad selection node 140. It may be useful, in the event thatadvertisers are given access to the advertisement definition section, toprovide a simplified or more graphical interface for this section. Inone embodiment the interface may include a map displaying the regions inwhich an advertisement may be served. A user may be allowed to selectdifferent ways in which the map may be broken down. In one embodiment,the user may select to view the map from different focus levels, zoomingin to state or city levels or zooming out to a global view. In oneembodiment, the user may select to have the map broken down into regionsrepresenting demographics that may allow them to, for example, selectthe regions in which there is a concentration of senior citizens, or theregions in which there is a strong Hispanic population. Other aspects ofadvertisement definition, such as the selection of time zone, may besimplified using graphical representations. In one embodiment theseinterfaces may be made available to the advertisers, publication andmedia companies as well.

Extranet Interfaces for Administrators

FIGS. 16-23 illustrate an administrative extranet may be provided forthe administrator of ad selection node 140.

FIG. 16 illustrates one embodiment of an administrative extranet homepage 300. In one embodiment the administrator may view the following:system activity 301 such as total ads served, ads served by category,geolocations processed, or similar such information; billing information302 such as the total retail value (TRV) of all ads served, the TRV ofads served by category, or similar such information; advertisementrecords 303 that may include information such as open date and time,close date and time, entry date and time, advertisement type,impressions purchased, advertiser company name, advertisement status, orany similar such information. In one embodiment the advertisementrecords 303 may contain an advertisement details link 305 to viewfurther information about the advertisement, including ad impressiondetails. In one embodiment the extranet home page 300 may only displaysystem activity that relates to the current month or to a month selectedin form element 304.

FIG. 17 illustrates one embodiment of an advertisement details page 310as may be reached through the advertisement details link 305. In oneembodiment advertisement activity information 311 similar to that ofsystem activity 301 may be displayed, but relating only to the selectedadvertisement. In one embodiment advertisement billing information 312similar to that of billing information 302 may be displayed, butrelating only to the selected advertisement. In one embodiment adimpression records 313 may be listed including information relating toindividual impressions served such as: advertiser name, the site onwhich the advertisement was served, the date and time the advertisementwas served, the IP address to which the ad was served, locationinformation such as zip code relating to where the ad was served, and alink to further details (if available) relating to the processedgeolocation information. In one embodiment a page similar toadvertisement details page 310 may be available with geolocationinformation including any or all details returned from a request togeolocation server 135.

FIG. 18 illustrates one embodiment of a publication details page 320.Publication details page 320 may provide the administrator withinformation relating to the advertisers, publications or media companieshaving access to ad selection node 140. This information may includecontract information such as the determined revenue split, cost perthousand impressions (CPM), and beginning and end dates. Publicationdetails page 320 may contain or link to a page for viewing furtherinformation, editing information, or inserting new information relatingto publications.

FIG. 19 illustrates one embodiment of an account details page 330.Account details page 330 may provide the administrator with informationrelating to the advertiser users, publication users, media companyusers, website administrative users, or any other users who have loginname and password access to view, update or edit information on adselection node 140. The information displayed may include the affiliatedcompany name, the user's name, user contact information, login name,password, and other information relating to the account. Account detailspage 330 may contain or link to a page for viewing further information,editing information, or inserting new information relating to useraccounts.

FIG. 20 illustrates one embodiment of an advertiser details page 340.Advertiser details page 340 may provide the administrator withinformation relating to the advertisers registered on ad selection node140. Information displayed may include advertiser company name, contactinformation, advertising history, or other such advertiser details.Advertiser details page 340 may contain or link to a page for viewingfurther information, editing information, or inserting new informationrelating to registered advertisers.

FIG. 21 illustrates one embodiment of a web site details page 350. Website details page 350 may provide the administrator with informationrelating to the web sites registered on ad selection node 140.Information displayed may include company name, web site URL, monthlyimpressions contracted, contracted CPM prices for different ad types,and other company, impression record, or contract details. Web sitedetails page 350 may contain or link to a page for viewing furtherinformation, editing information, or inserting information relating toregistered web sites.

FIG. 22 illustrates on embodiment of an administrative utility page 360.Ad selection node 140 may contain many settings relating to itsfunction, such as rules for its interaction with geolocation server 140.Geolocation server 140 may return confidence levels associated with thegeolocations it provides, these confidence levels indicating the levelof confidence geolocation server 140 has that it is providing accurategeolocation information. Different levels of confidence may be deemedacceptable, and a means of setting and editing past settings of requiredthreshold levels of confidence may be required. Administrative utilitypage 360 may contain form elements 361 that may allow an administratorto set and edit the threshold levels of confidence. Link 362 may providea page for viewing all current setting for threshold levels. Similaradministrative utility pages may be employed for any of the varioussettings involved in the operation of ad selection node 140.

Much of the information contained in FIGS. 14-22 may be useful not onlyto the administrator of ad selection node 140, but also to other users.Similar pages and interfaces may be used in the design of extranets forpublications, media companies, advertisers, or any other user of thesystem.

FIG. 23 illustrates one embodiment of a web site administrator page 370.Web site administrator page may be designed specifically for use in anextranet provided for the consumer web sites in content provider node130 of telecommunication system 100. Web site administrator page 370 mayinclude system activity 371, such as total ads served or ads servedbroken down by ad type, or billing information 372, such as the TRY ofads served or TRY broken down by ad type. Web site administrator page370 may also include instructions and/or insertable code 373 todemonstrate to the web site administrator how to utilize ad selectionnode 140 on their consumer web site.

Base Advertisement Delivery Method

FIG. 24 illustrates a flowchart 400 representative of a baseadvertisement delivery method of the telecommunication system 100 inaccordance with the present invention. During a stage S462 of theflowchart 400, the user (FIG. 1) utilizes one of the devices,apparatuses or systems of user node 120 (FIG. 1) to conventionallycommunicate an information request to content provider node 130 (FIG. 1)and/or to ad selection node 140 (FIG. 1). As previously stated, theinformation request can be in a variety of forms.

Upon completion of stage S402, telecommunication system 100 proceeds toa stage S402 of the flowchart 400 where ad selection node 140 manages adetermination of a geographic location of the user and/or a demographicprofile of the geographic location. Data serving as a basis for such adetermination can be stored within ad selection node 140 (e.g.,databases DBS and DB6) and/or in user identification node 150 (e.g.,databases DB7 and DB8). In one embodiment, targeted ad server 141 a(FIG. 3) conventionally communicates with database server 141 b (FIG.3), geographic location server 151 a (FIG. 4) and/or demographic profileserver 151 b (FIG. 4) to obtain the required data.

Upon completion of stage S404, telecommunication system 100 proceeds toa stage S406 of the flowchart 400 where ad selection node 140 manages aselection of one or more advertisements targeted to the user based onthe determination of the geographic location of the user and/or thedemographic profile of the geographic location. Ad selection node 140may use any number of algorithms to select what advertisement is to becommunicated to user node 120. Upon completion of stage S406,telecommunication system 100 proceeds to a stage S408 of the flowchart400 where ad selection node 140 manages a retrieval and a communicationof the targeted advertisement to the user via user node 120. Theadvertisement retrieval can be performed by content provider node 130and/or the ad selection node 140. Ad selection node 140 may employ anymeans communicating the ad to user node 120.

One embodiment includes communicating the ad information to a Javaserver page (JSP), an active server page (ASP), or any other suchdynamically generated web page, resource, or service known in the art.

Telecommunication system 100 tenninates flowchart 400 upon a completionof the stage S408. While the description of stages S402-S408 herein isbased on a sequential execution of stages S402-S408, an execution ofstages S402-S408 can be performed in an order including concurrentexecution of two or more stages.

Embodiments of Flowchart 400

FIG. 25 illustrates a flowchart 410 representative of a method inaccordance with the present invention for serving an ad when the contentis requested from content provider node 130 (FIG. 1). One example ofsuch a process would include accessing a web page over the Internet.User accesses a website on the Internet by making a network request tocontent provider node 130 during a stage S412 of the flowchart 410. Thismay be achieved using a personal computer 123 (FIG. 1) and entering auniversal resource locator (URL) in a standard browser such asMicrosoft's Internet Explorer, or Netscape Navigator. In the contentreceived from content provider node 130 is code that represents arequest for a banner ad during a stage S414 of the flowchart 410, suchas:

<iframe height=60src=“http://ads.dizpersion.com/adservice.aspx?sid=9&at=9” width=468frameborder=O marginwidth=O marginheight=O hspace=O vspace=Oscrolling=“no” bordercolor=“#OOOOOO”><img src=“/images/default.gif’</iframe>This code requests an ad from an ad selection node 140 found at thenetwork address represented by http://ads.dizpersion.com. The pageadservice.aspx receives the request during a stage S416 of the flowchart410. A determination of demographic information related to user is thenmade during a stage S418 of the flowchart 410. More will be discussedrelating to the determination of demographic information later. Based onthe demographic determination, ad selection node 140 checks for an adbased on the demographic information during a stage S420 of theflowchart 410. During a stage S422 of the flowchart 400, a search of thetargeted add within an inventory of ad selection node 140 isaccomplished. If an appropriate targeted ad exists in the inventory forad selection node 140, the ad may be served during a stage S424 of theflowchart 410. Ifan appropriate targeted ad does not exist in theinventory, ad selection node 140 may forward the request for an ad to adefault service from content provider node 130 during a stage S426 ofthe flowchart 410. Ad selection node 140 may allow the request to passto a default service by outputting code such as:

<iframe height=60 src=“http://ads.tpas.net/adservice.html” width=468frameborder=O marginwidth=O marginheight=O hspace=O vspace=Oscrolling=“no” bordercolor=“#OOOOOO”><img src=“/images/default.gif’></iframe>

Again, an iframe may be used to provide content from a different server,service, or different page on the same server. In this example code, thedefault ad service is a TPAS accessed via network addresshttp://ads.tpas.net/adservice.html. Alternatively, ad selection node 140may directly connect to the default ad source and display the content,as opposed to sending code instructing the client, or node in use byuser, to connect to the source. As was discussed previously the controlover which default service is selected to serve the ad, or from wherethe default ad will be served, will vary based upon the embodiment ofsystem 100 that is employed. In one embodiment, if an ad does not existin the ad selection node 140 inventory, no ad will be served intocontent provider node 130. If a default service is specified, thisdefault ad service may serve an ad during a stage S428 of the flowchart410.

While this embodiment was described as a request for a web page, it willbe apparent to one skilled in the art that similar processes may be usedin the delivery of an ad sent over WAP or any other network protocolsbased on content requests.

An example of one possible implementation of the ad serving mechanism ofad selection node 140 and its relationship with a content provider node130 is in the form of a consumer web site on content server 131 a (FIG.1), which can be a standard web site made up of HTML pages accessible onthe Internet by web browsers such as those commercially available byNetscape, Microsoft, and Opera. An example of the HTML surrounding andincluding an ad, the request for which may appear as follows:

  <table width=“490” align=“center” border=“O”>  <tr>   <td>    <center>   <script src=“http://diz.com/adservice?S=1 & A=1”>    </script>   </center><br>   </td>  </tr> </table>The ad request to ad selection node 140 begins and ends in the standardHTML “script tag.” All other HTML may be presentational material ofconsumer web site.

One embodiment may include passing values with the ad request for an adidentifying the consumer web site, as demonstrated above in the HTML getmethod included in the portion of the uniform resource locator (URL),“S=1”. This may indicate that the request for an ad originates from acontent provider node 130 that has been assigned an identificationnumber of “1” by database server 141 b, or some other portion of the adselection node 140. In FIG. 1, various servers 131 of content providernode 130 may be assigned different identification numbers, ornon-numerical identifiers. Alternatively, various pages or sections ofcontent of servers 131 may be assigned different identification numbers,or non-numerical identifiers, or even multiple identifiers. Using theHTML get method and identifiers is just one example of how informationmay be passed with the ad request and should not be viewed as limiting.Any means known in the art may be employed to pass such information.

The content served by ad selection node 140 may be in the form of aportion of or a complete hypertext markup language (HTML) web page, aportion of or a complete web page containing dynamic content as might beprovided by a technology such as Flash, an advertising tag or banner fora networked service such as instant messaging, a portion of or acomplete short messaging service (SMS) advertising message, a portion ofor a complete wireless application protocol (WAP) site or service, orany other form of advertising on a consumer networked site or serviceknown in the art.

Another example involves a distribution of targeted ads when the userselects to receive broadcast information from content provider node 130.One example of such a process would include receiving audio content andan audio ad, sent over satellite radio, broadcast into a mobile vehicle.In one embodiment, a multiplexing scheme may be employed to sendmultiple different signals representing advertisements over the sameradio channel. One such multiplexing scheme might include TDMA. Usingthis scheme a variety of time slots may be specified, each intended fora specific demographic. If a targeted ad exists for one of thedemographic slots, ad selection node 140 may send it on that slot. If notargeted ad exists, ad selection node 140 may pass on serving into thatslot, allowing a general or default ad to be sent. User at some pointtunes in to the broadcast channel on which this system 100 is running.The broadcast includes a segment in which an advertisement will beplayed, and the broadcast signal may indicate that an ad is to beserved. Alternatively, and potentially based upon the multiplexingscheme employed, the radio receiver used by user may automaticallydetermine that an ad is being served without it being specificallyindicated in the broadcast signal. The radio receiver, or a deviceavailable to the radio receiver then determines the current demographicsassociated with the network node it represents. This demographicdetermination might include information about user taken at the time ofsubscription to the satellite radio service that is stored or programmedinto the receiver or associated device. Also, the receiver or associateddevice may include global positioning system (GPS) capability, and adetermination of current location may be used in part or solely in thedemographic determination. Based on the demographic determination, theradio receiver or associated device can select the appropriate signalout of the multiplexed signal, decoding a particular ad signal. The usermay then receive the decoded ad signal as an ad.

While this embodiment was described as a satellite radio broadcast, itwill be apparent to one skilled in the art that similar processes may beused in the delivery of an ad sent over digital television, or any othernetwork broadcast.

FIG. 26 illustrates computer software employed in the telecommunicationsystem 430 of FIG. 1. An advertiser indexing module 142 is a uniquesoftware package of server 141 for implementing several stages of anadvertiser indexing routine 430 as shown in FIG. 27. During a stage S432of routine 430, a newspaper publisher of a newspaper having a region ofcommercial influence (e.g., region RCI in FIG. 5), a manager of webserver 131, and ad advertiser of the newspaper are enlisted tofacilitate an on-line advertising of one or more advertisements of theadvertiser on telecommunication system 100. In one embodiment of stageS432, the newspaper publisher contacts each advertiser of the newspaperto ascertain any interest in advertising on web pages of contentproviders of telecommunication system 100 such as web site server 20.

During a stage S434 of routine 430, module 142 transmits a data requestDR to DB6 seeking geographical information related to the region ofcommercial influence of the newspaper. In one embodiment of stage S434,the data request DR specifically seeks all zip codes within the regionof commercial influence of the newspaper. During a stage S436 of routine430, module 142 receives geographical data GD₁ from DB6 that is relatedto the region of commercial influence of the newspaper. In oneembodiment of stage S434, the geographical data GD₁ includes all zipcodes within the region of commercial influence of the newspaper.

During a stage S438 ofroutine 430, module 142 transmits an advertiserrecord ARx to DB6 that includes geographical data GD₁ and an advertisingpackage of the advertiser to be displayed in telecommunication system430. In one embodiment of stage S438, advertiser record ARx furtherincludes a unique identifier for the advertiser, a pointer to theappropriate advertising package, the date and time of the lastimpression, the number of impressions made in this timeframe, theminimum number of impressions that should be made in each recognizedtimeframe, and the maximum number of impressions that may be made ineach recognized timeframe. Module 142 terminates routine 430 uponcompletion of stage S438. Those having ordinary skill in the art willappreciate the efficiency, convenience, and cost benefits ofroutine 430to newspapers, web site servers such as server 131, and advertisersinvolved with the display of ads on telecommunication system 430.

Referring again to FIG. 26, an Internet browser 124 is a conventionalsoftware package of workstation 123 for implementing a routine 440 (FIG.28) that enables consumer to provide a web address in the form of aUniform Resource Locator (URL) corresponding to website server 131during a stage S442 of routine 440 whereby the consumer can downloadinformation over a web page WP from website server 131 during a stageS444 ofroutine 440. An Internet engine 132 is a conventional softwarepackage of website server 131 for implementing a routine 450 (FIG. 28)that provides a user signal in the form of an Internet Protocol addressIP to server 141 in response to a reception of Uniform Resource Locator(URL) during a stage S122 of routine 120 whereby web site server 131 cantransmit a web page WP having an advertisement package APx thereinduring a stage S124 ofroutine 120.

A web interface 143 and ad scheduling module 144 may be unique softwarepackages of server 141 for implementing a routine 460 (FIG. 28) thatprovides the Internet Protocol address IP to server 151 in response to areception of the Internet Protocol address IP during a stage S462 ofroutine 460 whereby module 144 can transmits advertising package APx indigitized form including images, animations, videos, text, software,and/or sounds during a stage S466 of routine 4SO. Location mapper module1S2 is a conventional software package such as that provided by Quova,Inc., for implementing a routine 470 (FIG. 28) that maps InternetProtocol address IP to corresponding geographical information to therebyreturn geographical data GD₂ S including a description of a presumedgeographical location of personal computer 123 during a stage S474ofroutine 470 in response to a reception oflnternet Protocol address IPduring a stage S472 ofroutine 470. In one embodiment of module 1S2,geographical data GD₂ includes information related to the presumedgeographical location of personal computer 123 such as the continent,the time zone, the U.S. state (if appropriate), the city, the latitude,the longitude, the U.S. zip code (if appropriate), the Designated MarketArea (DMA), the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), and the PrimaryMetropolitan Statistical Area (PSMA).

Module 144 implements a subroutine 480 during a stage S464 ofroutine 470in response to a reception of the geographical data GD₂ from server 1S1to identify and retrieve advertising package APx from DB6. Oneembodiment of subroutine 480 is shown as subroutine 490 in FIG. 29.During a stage S492 of subroutine 160, module 144 transmits a locationidentifier LI and a timeframe identifier TI to DB6. In one embodiment ofstage S492, location identifier LI identifies all zip codes containedwithin geographical data GD₂ as received by module 144. Additionally,timeframe identifier TI identifies the timeframe (e.g., a day and anhour) upon which interface 143 and module 144 received Internet Protocoladdress AP from server 131.

During a stage S494 of subroutine 490, module 144 receives advertisingpackage APx from DBS . In one embodiment of stage S494, one or moreadvertiser records corresponding to identifier LI and timeframeidentifier TI are listed within DBS with a marking indicating the dateand time of the last impression. As a result, advertising package APx isretrieved from an advertising record that is marked as the next recordto be displayed. Module 144 terminates subroutine 490 upon completion ofstage 164. Those having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate theefficiency, convenience, and cost benefits of routine 440, routine 4SO,routine 460, and routine 470 to consumers, newspapers, web site serverssuch as server 131, and advertisers involved with the display of ads ontelecommunication system 100.

In one embodiment, content provider node 130 may continue to serveadvertisements of their choosing if ad selection node 140 cannotascertain the location of the end user node 120 or if ad selection node140 does not contain an advertisement for the location of the end usernode 120. In one embodiment, the default advertisement, that which ischosen by content provider node 130, will be served automatically by adselection node 140. In one embodiment, ad selection node 140 may selecta non-location based advertisement in the event that ad selection node140 cannot ascertain the location of the end user node, or if adselection node 140 does not contain an advertisement for the location ofthe end user node. In one embodiment, no advertisement may be served inthe event that ad selection node 140 cannot ascertain the location ofthe end user node, or if ad selection node 140 does not contain anadvertisement for the location of the end user node.

In one embodiment, multiple advertisements may be available in adselection node 140 for a web site and location combination. In oneembodiment, all available advertisements for a web site and locationcombination may be served in a round robin manner. In one embodiment,the round robin will be over all impressions entering the system. In oneembodiment, the round robin may be over only impressions served to anindividual end user node. In one embodiment, statistical weights, ornumbers associated with a greater or smaller statistical likelihood thatan advertisement will be served, may be assigned to each advertisement.When multiple advertisements are available for a web site and locationcombination, the statistical weights of all available advertisements maybe used in conjunction with a random number generator to choose whichadvertisement may be served. In one embodiment, advertisements sold by aprimary may be given a higher statistical weight than that of asecondary. In one embodiment, advertisements sold by a primary may begiven a higher statistical weight when being served inside of thatprimary's area of commercial influence. In one embodiment,advertisements that are to be served within a defined time frame may begiven heavy statistical weight to provide greater probability that theadvertisement will be served during the defined time even if otheradvertisements are available. In one embodiment, an advertisement may begiven different statistical weights on different web sites or web sitecategories. In one embodiment combinations of defined time and primarystatus may be given higher statistical weight than one without primarystatus. Many algorithms and statistical weight assignments may beemployed to give priority to preferred advertisements, be thatpreferment based on advertiser, broker of the advertisement sale,location, time sensitivity, or any combination of these or otherfactors.

For example, ad selection node 140 may hold the followingadvertisements: an advertisement AO, sold on a total number ofimpressions basis, to be served anywhere; an advertisement A1 sold by asecondary, sold on a total number of impressions basis, to be served inChicago, Ill.; an advertisement A2, sold by a primary, sold on a totalnumber of impressions basis, to be served in Chicago, Ill.; anadvertisement A3 sold by a secondary, sold on a total number ofimpressions basis, to be served in zip code 60614 only; an advertisementA4 sold by a primary, sold into a particular time block, to be served inChicago, Ill.; and an advertisement AS sold by a primary, sold into aparticular time block, to be served in zip code 60614 only. When a usernode hits the system from zip code 60614 any of the above listed ads maybe served. The statistical weighting may be handled in the followingmanner. AO may be assigned a weight of 1, as it is at a global level andsold by a secondary. Al may be assigned the higher weight of 3, as it issold at the city level, which is a more precise location than requiredby AO. A2 may be assigned a weight of 6, as it is both at the city leveland sold by a primary as opposed to a secondary. In this example,advertisements sold by a primary may receive a multiplier of 2 over theweight they would receive as sold by a secondary. A3 may be assigned aweight of S, accounting for greater precision than Al, but lower than A2as it was not sold by a primary. A4 is may be assigned a weight of 600,as it must be served only within a particular time frame it must beheavily weighted. In this example, time sensitive advertisements mayreceive a multiplier of 100 over the weight they would receive if soldon a number of impressions basis. AS may be assigned a weight of 2SO asit is both time sensitive and requires a high level of locationprecision. All of these weights may be added together (1+3+6+S+600+2SO)to create the total statistical pool, or the size of the advertisementlottery so to speak. The total size in this case is 161S. On astatistical basis this means that over time AS may be served 2SO out ofevery 161S times, or almost 62% of the time. A4 may be served 600 out ofevery 161S times, or approximately 37% of the time. And so on for theother advertisements. All of this statistical weighting may be based ona defined set of adjustable business rules and may be automatically anddynamically assigned before or during the ad serving process.

In another embodiment, the statistical weighting may take into accountthe price paid for the advertisements. For example, an advertisementthat was purchased at a $S CPM would not be as likely to be served asone purchased at $10 CPM. In another embodiment, the pricing for theindividual advertisement may be calculated based solely or in part onthe statistical weighting associated with it. For example, anadvertisement that is only able to be served into a single zip code andonly during a one hour period on a single site would cost significantlymore than an advertisement that could be broadcast anywhere in an entirestate, or over a period of weeks.

The concept of preferential serving into geographic locations wasdiscussed previously. Another embodiment of the invention allows forpreferential serving to any of the other definable characteristics of anadvertisement. A company might be given preferential placement on anindividual site or category of sites, such as the Green Bay Packerswebsite, www.packers.com. In another embodiment, a company might begiven preferential placement based on a time, such as ESPN requestinglate night preferential placement of a Sports Center advertisement. Inanother embodiment, a company might be given preferential placementbased on one or more demographics, such as the NAACP may be givenpreferential placement in geographic locations with higherconcentrations of African Americans. Combinations of these factors mayalso describe a preferential placement, such as Comedy Centralrequesting preferential placement on the Green Bay Packers and other NFLwebsites, during the hours preceding and during the Super Bowl toadvertise an alternative halftime show on their channel. Preferentialplacement arrangements may be handled on an individual ad basis usingsome statistical method, such as the ones described above. Preferentialplacement arrangements may be also granted on a larger scale foradvertisers, in a manner similar to primary area classifications, suchas those described above.

As has been previously noted, there are a variety of businessrelationship and network configuration possibilities in terms of theimplementation of ad selection node 140. Several embodiments have beendescribed in which the code requesting an ad from ad selection node 140is hardcoded into the pages on content provider node 130. Ad selectionnode 140, regardless of whether an ad is in inventory, must handle therequest. In another embodiment, some determination as to theavailability of a targeted ad may be made prior to the request beingpassed to ad selection node 140. For example, an XML service may beenabled that allows code on content provider node 130 to check theavailability of an ad at ad selection node 140 for a received request.This may be achieved by making a direct request for this informationwith each ad request received at content provider node 130.Alternatively, some or all of the information relating to theavailability of ads may be stored locally at content provider node 130.This information may be stored in memory, held on disk in a variety offormats, stored in a local database table, or any other method as wouldoccur to one of ordinary skill in the art. This information may also becached in memory on ad selection node 140 to speed retrieval. Thisinformation may be updated based on either a time period passing, anumber of impressions occurring, a rate at which impressions areoccurring, a combination of these, or none of these.

In one embodiment, data transfers, such as with XML and perhaps usingSOAP or another protocol, may be employed to transfer informationregarding demographics, advertisements, and the availability ofadvertisements between the TPAS, targeted ad server and content sitenodes. Exemplary data transfer models would enable previously describedportions of the business logic to be pushed to these various nodes.Hardware, software and platform specific packages may be designed suchthat it is unnecessary to pass each request to the primary targeted adserving node. In one embodiment, a client application package on acontent site could access a data package representing the availabilityof geographically and/or demographically targeted ads for a partial orcomplete set of the possible geographic and demographic combinations.This data package may represent those ads available only for thatparticular content site, limiting the size of the data package that mustbe transferred and held by the client application package on the contentsite. In one embodiment, the targeted advertisements, or references tothe targeted advertisements may be additionally stored on the clientapplication package. In one embodiment, the client application packagemay be installed on the content site's servers. In an alternativeembodiment, targeted ad server may supply the content site with apackage to be run on a separate server local or at least dedicated tothat content site. The separate server may be owned and operated byeither the targeted ad server, the content site, or managed inconjunction.

In the embodiment that enables such data transfers, a pull and pushsystem for information updates may be defined by an API, and implementedusing any variety of business rules. In one embodiment, a data pushand/or pull of the availability of advertisements, and possibly a recordof impressions received by the content site, are perfornied in atime-scheduled manner. In an alternative embodiment, the push and/orpull may be performed based on a threshold number of advertisementimpressions served by the content site. The advantage achieved bypushing information relating to the availability of ads for a particularcontent site, geographic, and demographic closer to the content site isthat it allows targeted ad server to handle requests that result in ahigher percentage of targeted advertisements served.

Further, ad selection node 140 is capable of passing other informationto and from other nodes of telecommunication system 110. For example,information regarding ad impressions, click-throughs, printing ofcoupons, or other details related to serving of ads may be passedimmediately or asynchronously to any other nodes.

Right of First Refusal

FIGS. 31-35 illustrates a variety of the business arrangements andcombinations of services that may be involved in the function oftargeted ad server 141 a (FIG. 3), content server 131 a (FIG. 2) andthird party ad server (“TASP”) 131 b (FIG. 2). For example, FIG. 31illustrates an embodiment in which targeted ad server 141 a may own oroperate some form of content server 131 a. In such an embodiment, thecontent, and all ad serving is handled through the targeted ad server.

In another embodiment as illustrated in FIG. 32, targeted ad server 141a may again own or operate some form of content server 131 a, but inthis embodiment a relationship exists with TPAS 131 b. The content siteowned or operated by targeted ad server 141 a may pass a request for anad to the portion of targeted ad server 141 a that determines whether atargeted ad exists in its inventory for the given network request. Thedetermination process to be discussed in greater detail later. Based onthe determination, tameted ad server 141 a may serve an ad from itsinventory or pass the request on to TPAS 131 b.

FIG. 33 illustrates a first embodiment that includes a separate contentserver 131 a. This embodiment is essentially similar to FIG. 31, but thecontent server 131 a is not owned or operated by targeted ad server 141a.

FIG. 34 illustrates an embodiment in which content server 131 a has arelationship with targeted ad server 141 a and TPAS 131 b. In thisembodiment, the content server 131 a might be a web site including atleast one web page that includes code requesting an advertisement fromtargeted ad server 141 a. Every request for an ad may be passed totargeted ad server 141 a, or the requests may be on some periodic,rotational, or statistically calculated basis. Upon receiving therequest, targeted ad server 141 a determines whether a targeted adexists in its inventory for the given network request. Based on thisdetermination, targeted ad server 141 a may serve an ad from itsinventory or pass the request on to a page hosted on content server 131a defining a default ad to serve, or passing the request directly toTPAS 131 b as specified by content server 131 a.

FIG. 35 illustrates another embodiment, this time wherein TPAS 131 b andtargeted ad server 141 a have a relationship. In this embodiment,content server 131 a may be unaware of the existence of targeted adserver 141 a. Its relationship may be with TPAS 131 b. Content server131 a requests an ad from TPAS 131 b. The request to TPAS 131 b mayactually in effect be a request to targeted ad server 115. This might beachieved by masking the direct request to the targeted ad server byusing a domain name of TPAS 131 b pointing to a server running targetedad server 141 a. Alternatively, TPAS 131 b may receive the ad request,call targeted ad server 141 a, and serve an ad from one of the twoservers based on the availability of a targeted ad. Again, every requestmay be passed to targeted ad server 141 a, or they may be passed on someperiodic, rotational, or statistically calculated basis.

FIG. 36 illustrates an embodiment very similar to FIG. 35, but in thiscase content server 131 a has a relationship with targeted ad server 141a, and content server 131 a may be unaware of the relationship thatexists between targeted ad server 141 a and TPAS 131 b. In thisembodiment, tameted ad server 141 a receives the ad requests first.Again using the example of an ad served with web content, content server131 a might include code requesting an ad from targeted ad server 141 a.Targeted ad server 141 a then determines whether an appropriate adexists in its inventory, and based on this determination it serveseither a targeted ad or forwards the request to TPAS 131 b.

Some content sites use content management systems, or other software tomanage ad serving in-house. In one embodiment, targeted ad server 141 amay work in conjunction with the producer of the content managementsystem to provide means to more easily enable managing default ads whenemploying the targeted ad system. Such means might include automaticallysupplying a URL for a default request, supplying a back door page orprogram to receive information such as click-through registering forhits as they occur, or other such conveniences.

The embodiments shown in FIGS. 31-36 illustrate targeted ad server 141 aas a concept and product that may be described as aright-of-first-refusal ad server (RFRAS). For the purposes of thisapplication RFRAS is defined as an ad server that, based on some ruleset, makes a determination as to whether it should serve a targeted ador pass on the opportunity. In one embodiment, targeted ad server 141 ais an RFRAS, and in this case may be referred to as RFRAS 141A.

RFRAS 141A exists to facilitate the cooperative uses of the advertiser,agent of the advertiser, content server 131 a, and TPAS 131 b. By actingas an intermediary, RFRAS 141A allows each entity to continue to focuson core competencies. In other words, the advertiser may now be offerednetwork advertising, interfaces for interacting with the creation anddefinition of network advertising, all in a targeted manner previouslyunavailable for network advertising. Agent of the advertiser, in thecase that they are a traditional publication, may continue to focustheir ad sales on a geographic area relevant to their standardadvertising clients. Minimally, they are provided with an additionaloutlet to sell advertisements for. Content server 131 a may benefit fromhigher revenues related to the higher revenues anticipated for the saleof targeted advertising. Content server 131 a may also see intangiblebenefits related to more a more satisfied user, as the advertisingmessages presented to user may be more relevant. Allowing content server131 a to continue to use their existing ad serving solution in the eventthat there is no ad available on RFRAS 141A may ensure that there is noloss involved in employing the RFRAS solution. TPAS may continue tofocus on selling and providing general advertisements, or advertisementsfocused in a similar or different manner than those on RFRAS 141A.

Depending on the type of device and network user employs, RFRAS 141A mayuse two primary methods to serve targeted ads. In the one case, user mayrequest content from content server 131 a, in the other case user maychoose to receive broadcast information from content server 131 a.

In an embodiment wherein content provider node 130 dynamically generatesits content, much of the logic described as being performed in adselection node 140 may be may be pushed to the content provider. In thecase of providing web content, and in the case that the content is notdynamically generated, an iframe allows ad selection node 140 to reserveour position in the page to serve an ad. By serving up another iframe asthe content provided by ad selection node 140, the control of that adposition is effectively passed on to another server. Using this method,any content site using standard html may employ the RFRAS system of adselection node 140.

In one embodiment the request for an ad received by the targeted adserver may include instructions relating to what default ad serviceshould be called in the event no ad is available, or at least mayinclude parameters to be passed to the default ad service.

Demographic Determination Process

The ad selection node 140 and the content provider node 130 may bedesigned and configured in any form that may lead to the serving of anad. This may be done by a request to a common gateway interface (CGI)script, java servlet, or any other means known in the art. Oneembodiment may include a page request to an ad service servlet that maypass the request on to an internal ad serving program. The request to adselection node 140 and the content provider node 130 may include the IPaddress of the user node 120, and this information may be passed on toad serving program. Ad serving program may pass the IP address to useridentification node 150 and may receive geographic location informationback from user identification node 150. One embodiment of the presentinvention provides for multiple alternative means of establishing thelocation of an end user node. In one embodiment, a cookie may be droppedassociated with the ad server that holds zip code, city, state, or anyother standard or custom designation of location. The cookie may alsohold some confidence level associated with how strongly the system mayassume that the given location is accurate. In one embodiment, the enduser may designate the location of an end user node specifically, or thelocation may be specified by some service holding end user informationsuch as, for example, Hailstorm, which is currently under commercialdevelopment by Microsoft. In one embodiment, after the location of anend user node has been established, by whatever means chosen, thelocation information may be stored in temporary memory on the ad serverfor a period of time. This temporary storage may be associated with theindividual user by IP address, and may be released after a configurableperiod of inactivity from that IP address. In one embodiment, thelocation information may be stored in a database associated with adserving program, whether that information was collected from ageolocation service like Quova, Inc. or Hailstorm, from the end userherself, or by any other means known in the art. In one embodiment, anynumber of the above techniques may be employed together, orindividually. When multiple means are used, the ad serving program mayuse any system to select which means to used or in what order they arechecked. In one embodiment the ad serving program may first check for anin memory session associated with the end user node. If no location isascertainable by this means the program may check an internal databaseholding previously established mappings between IP address and location.If again no location is ascertainable by this means the program may callthe Quova, Inc. geolocation service. The geographic location may bepassed by ad serving program in a request to ad selection node 140. Manypieces of information may be passed to ad selection node 140 including,but not limited to, the IP address of the user node that may have madethe initial request from content provider node 130, informationidentifying content provider node 130 as an additional source of therequest, geolocation information returned by user identification node150, geolocation provided by content provider node 130, or by end usernode 120.

Previously examples were given of code included on content provider node130 that requests an ad from ad selection node 140. It should berecognized that even using such static code, many more pieces ofinformation may be passed from content provider node 130 to ad selectionnode 140. Information passed along with the ad request might include thesection of a site or the page of a site on which the ad is to bedisplayed. The information might include information held on the siteregarding the user, this information gathered in a profile, collectedfrom a form, or just an identifier used by the site to identify saiduser. The information might include URLs that may indicate the desiredlocation for ad redirect in the event ad selection node 140 selects notto serve an ad, or may indicate the desired location for a call toindicate to content provider node 130 that the user interacted with aserved ad (submitted a form, clicked a banner, printed a coupon, etc.).These pieces of information are only exemplary, and others may occur toone skilled in the art.

The passing of information from content provider node 130 to adselection node 140 may be achieved using querystring variables,variables sent using the post method, or using a different means ofcommunications such as an XML data transfer or request. Alternatively,other protocols or means of communication over network 110 orout-of-band communication may be employed to transfer informationrelating to the user.

If a complete table of IP Address to geographic locations is maintainedas the primary means of determining the geographic location (i.e. adselection node 140 looks up this information from the table on everyimpression), the geographic locations associated with the IP Address maybe updated using a variety of means. If using Quova, or a similarservice, the update may be based on the threshold returned, if a certainperiod of time has passed since the information was established, or maybe pushed or pulled when the initial source or some other source has apotentially more accurate and updated location associated with one ofthe stored values.

Reporting Process

As a value added, the ad selection node 140 may communicate to thecontent provider node 130 the geographic location, or other userinformation stored on the targeted ad server 141 a. This may be doneimmediately on reception of the request, may contain some key toindicate to the web site which of their users it is, and may becommunicated over public networks, private networks, or private session(VPN).

In one embodiment, telecommunication system 100 may also provide a dataservice to participating consumer web sites. Data from the USCB or someother source may be incorporated with advertisement impression andlocation information. Together this packaged data may give consumer websites an indication of their impression distribution by location, and bydemographic data associated with those locations. This information maybe given or sold to the consumer web sites participating intelecommunication system 100.

Billing Process

One embodiment of the current invention provides a method for dividingthe revenue earned through advertisement delivery. In one embodiment therevenue earned may vary based upon advertisement type, the location intowhich the advertisement is served, and the advertiser, publication ormedia company that sold the advertisement. In one embodiment, anadvertisement may not be sold into a primary area by a publication,media company, or advertiser that does not hold the primary status inthat area. In one embodiment, an advertisement may be sold into aprimary area by a publication, media company, or advertiser that doesnot hold the primary status in that area, but the company that purchasedthe advertisement may be charged a flat fee or percentage of the overalladvertising revenue to serve into that primary area. In one embodiment,a database and software solution may automatically calculate any chargesor credits relating to primary and secondary status. The database andsoftware solution may automatically generate billing statements foradvertisers, publications and media companies registered with adselection node 140.

FIG. 30 is a map of the state of Ill. containing outlined areas ofcommercial influence for five fictitious advertisers or publications.One embodiment of the invention may provide publications with certaindistribution advantages associated with advertisements served on thenetwork 110, these advantages being referred to as holding primarystatus over an area. Those advertisers or publications that have beenawarded such advantage may be referred to as primaries in recognition oftheir primary status. Those advertisers or publications not holdingprimary status over their area of influence may be referred to assecondaries. Area P1 and area P2 represent the areas of commercialinfluence for two primaries. Area CP1 represents the overlapping areasof commercial influence for the primaries holding areas P1 and P2. AreasSI, S2, and S3 represent the areas of influence for three secondaryadvertisers or publications.

In one example, a billing statement for the advertiser or publicationwith area of influence P1 may include billing information foradvertisements that were served in areas P1, P2 (the portion not inCPI), CPI , and SI. In one embodiment of this example, the advertiser orpublication with area of influence P1 may receive full income foradvertisements served in areas P1 and SI because those areas are withinthe advertiser's or publication's primary area or are not in a primaryarea at all. Areas P2 and CPI may be handled in multiple ways. In oneembodiment, advertiser or publication with area of influence P1 wouldnot be charged for serving into areas P2 or CP1 solely because it is aprimary. In one embodiment advertiser or publication with area ofinfluence P1 may be charged for serving into area P2 because that isanother advertiser or publication's primary area. Advertisements servedinto area CPI by advertiser or publication with area of influence P1 maybe charged because it is within another advertiser's or publication'sprimary area, or may not be charged because it is still within theprimary area of P1.

In another example, a billing statement for advertiser or publicationwith area of influence S1 may include billing information foradvertisements served in areas P1, CP1, and S1. In one embodimentadvertiser or publication with area of influence S1 may serve withinarea S1 without incurring any charge. In one embodiment, the same flatfee or percentage may be charged to advertiser or publication with areaof influence SI for serving into areas P1 or CPI because at least oneadvertiser or publication holds primary status over each area. In oneembodiment, a double charge may be placed on advertisements served intoarea CP1 because it is within both primary area P1 and primary area P2.

In another example, a billing statement for advertiser or publicationwith area of influence S2 may include billing information foradvertisements served in areas P1 (not in S2), S2, and S1. In oneembodiment, advertiser or publication with area of influence S2 may notbe charged for serving into area SI because it is not within a primaryarea. In one embodiment, advertiser or publication with area ofinfluence S2 may be charged for serving into area P1 (not in S2) becauseit is within a primary area. In one embodiment, advertiser orpublication with area of influence S2 may be charged for serving intoarea S2 because it is within primary area P1. In one embodiment,advertiser or publication with area of influence S2 may not be chargedfor serving into area S2 because it is within that advertiser orpublication's area of influence.

In another example, a billing statement for advertiser or publicationwith area of influence S3 may include billing information foradvertisements served in area S3. In one embodiment, advertiser orpublication with area of influence S3 may not be charged foradvertisements served into area S3 because it is within that advertiseror publication's area of influence. In one embodiment, advertiser orpublication with area of influence S3 may be charged a flat fee orpercentage for serving into area S3 because it is within at least oneadvertiser or publication's primary area. In one embodiment, advertiseror publication with area of influence S3 may be charged a double flatfee or percentage for serving into area S3 because it is within twoadvertiser or publication's primary areas.

The database and software solution may implement any of the aboveembodiments, any combination of the above embodiments, or other possibleembodiments in calculating billing information for each advertiser orpublication or media company. In one embodiment, a bill may includeseparate sections for categories such as: advertisements served into theadvertiser or publication's primary area or a non-primary area, sold bythat advertiser or publication; advertisements served into theadvertiser or publication's primary area by another advertiser orpublication; and advertisements served into another advertiser orpublication's primary area.

While the above method of defining primary areas and the accountingmethods associated with those primary areas has focused on publicationand media companies, similar concepts may be applied in a variety ofways. Primary status over an area may be held by other companies,individuals or other entities that may claim a specifiable area ofinfluence. Primary status may also be granted regardless of area ofinfluence, but on a purchasable basis-set fee or auction based-or bysome other means of determination. For example, one embodiment mightallow a franchisee to hold primary status over the area in which theyretail products or services. In another embodiment, primary status overan area may be held by a local government in their area of jurisdiction.Primary status over an area, as it may include a percentage of earningsfor any ad broadcast into that area, may be viewed as a purchasableand/or tradable commodity, may be granted indefinitely or only over aspecific time period, and may be granted on a transferable ornon-transferable basis. The sale of primary status, on the basis of itspotential future revenues, may also be used as an alternative means toraise capital, as opposed to selling equity in the ad serving companyitself.

Additional Embodiments

Telecommunications system 100 as described above includes many variousmethods and uses of sending targeted ads. Further examples will now bedescribed to detail some of the additional features and capabilities ofsuch as system.

In one embodiment, multiple advertising package opportunities may beavailable to an advertiser on ad selection node 140. While there aremany different options, four possible scenarios are as follows:

First, advertisers who distribute and/or provide their goods or servicesexclusively from a single geographic location within an individualMetropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), and seek to advertise such goodsand services exclusively within said MSA, ad selection node 140 mayprovide a method by which the advertiser may advertise such Client'sgoods or services, and/or promotions and the like relating to such goodsor services, on web sites signed up within the advertising network whensuch web sites are visited by persons physically located within such MSAexclusively.

By way of example, advertisers with passenger airlines as clients, suchas United, American or Delta, who offer their air transport services tothe population of an entire MSA from a single location, such as GeneralMitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, Wis., could conduct apromotion(s) on the airline's behalf through said method which maypublicize the sale of an airfare from Milwaukee to a remote destination,such as Phoenix.

Second, advertisers who distribute and/or provide their goods orservices from more than one geographic location within an individualMSA, and seek to advertise such goods and services exclusively withinsaid MSA, ad selection node 140 may provide a method by which theadvertiser may advertise such Client's goods or services, throughintra-MSA location-specific or intra-MSA location-agnostic promotions,and/or promotions and the like relating to such goods or services, onweb sites signed up within the advertising network when such web sitesare :(1) visited by persons physically located within such MSAexclusively; or (2) visited by persons physically located within aselect distance from one or more of said advertiser's geographiclocations.

By way of example, advertising agencies with fast food restaurants asclients, such as McDonald's, Burger King or Wendy's, who offer theirfood products to the populations of entire MSAs through multiplelocations, such as McDonald's of Evanston, Ill., McDonald's of Wilmetteand McDonald's of Winnetka, could conduct location-specific promotionson the restaurant's behalf through said method, which could publicize,for example, a “Buy One Get One Free Hamburger—only at McDonald's ofWinnetka” available exclusively at the McDonald's of Winnetka location.Alternatively, the advertising agency could conduct a location-agnosticpromotion, such as “Buy One Get One Free Hamburger—at any participatingChicago-area McDonald's”, whereby said promotion could be advertised onthe web sites of the advertising network to the entire MSA viewing area.

Third, advertisers who distribute and/or provide their goods or servicesexclusively from a single geographic location within an individualMetropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), and seek to advertise throughoutmultiple MSAs, ad selection node 140 may provide a method by which theadvertiser may advertise such Client's goods or services, and/orpromotions and the like relating to such goods or services, on web sitessigned up within the advertising network when such web sites are visitedby persons physically located throughout multiple MSAs.

By way of example, advertisers with passenger airlines as clients, suchas United, American or Delta, who offer their air transport services tothe populations of multiple MSAs from single locations within eachindividual MSA, such as General Mitchell International Airport in theMilwaukee, Wis., MSA and O'Hare International Airport in the Chicago,Ill., MSA could conduct a promotion(s) on the airline's behalf throughsaid method which would publicize that all United flights will providegratuitous in-flight meals from May 1 through September 1, irrespectiveof where the flight originates or arrives.

Fourth, advertisers who distribute and/or provide their goods orservices from more than one geographic location within an individualMSA, and seek to advertise throughout multiple MSAs, ad selection node140 may provide a method by which the advertiser may advertise suchClient's goods or services, through inter-MSA location-specific orinter-MSA location-agnostic promotions, and/or promotions and the likerelating to such goods or services, on web sites signed up within theadvertising network when such web sites are: (1) visited by personsphysically located throughout one of the multiple MSAs; or (2) visitedby persons physically located within a select distance from one or moreof said advertiser's geographic locations across multiple MSAs.

By way of example, advertising agencies with fast food restaurants asclients, such as McDonald's, Burger King or Wendy's, who offer theirfood products to the populations of entire MSAs through multiplelocations, such as McDonald's of Evanston, Ill., McDonald's of Wilmetteand McDonald's of Winnetka, could conduct MSA-agnostic promotions on therestaurant's behalf through said method, which could publicize, forexample, a “Free Beenie Baby w/ Every Purchase” available exclusivelyfor a limited time at any participating McDonald's in the Midwest, orother participating locations.

Targeted Ad Wrapper System

Using the same technologies, as discussed above, but by rearranging theroles of the various nodes, targeted advertisements may be supplied in adifferent manner.

As previously discussed, code may be supplied to a content site allowingit to take part in the RFRAS system. Example code supplied to thecontent site was given as:

<iframe height=60src=“http://ads.dizpersion.com/adservice.aspx?sid=9&at=9” width=468frameborder=O marginwidth=O marginheight=O hspace=O vspace=Oscrolling=“no” bordercolor=“#OOOOOO ”><img src=“/images/ default.gif’></iframe>

Or another example was given as:

<script src=“http://diz.com/adservice?S=1&A=1”>

In each instance a unique identifier is supplied with the code (sid=9and S=1) that may be associated with the particular site hosting thecode. In addition to determining what ads in the RFRAS system may beserved on that site, the unique identification of the site may also berequired to determine what default ad is to be served. Another method ofsupplying advertisements using similar technologies may be described asa targeted ad wrapper server (TAWS) system. In a TAWS system, additionalflexibility may be provided to the advertiser by allowing them to serveon any content site of their choosing. The TAWS system again uses codedistributed to web sites, but in this case the unique identifier is forone or more specific ad campaigns.

For example, FIG. 37 illustrates a targeted ad wrapper 503. A targetedad wrapper may be described as a distributable, packaged RFRAS system. ARFRAS system serving targeted ads must have a default ad arrangementwith each web site. Without prior arrangements with each web siteparticipating in the RFRAS system, the RFRAS system can not perform inits preferred mode. Regardless of how a targeted advertising campaign istechnically achieved, as long as an ad must be served there must be adefault ad to serve in the case that the ad request does not fit withthe one or more targeted ads in the campaign. So whereas the RFRASsystem requires an arrangement with web sites to handle the default ad,a TAWS system includes the default in the ad wrapper itself.

Targeted ad wrapper 503 comprises one or more targeted ads 501 and oneor more default ads 502, which are recomized by an identifier unique tothat combination of ads. This is similar to the site identifier in theRFRAS system. The code identifying that particular combination oftargeted and default ads may be distributed to any content site,regardless of whether it is participating in a RFRAS system or not. Thisallows the one or more advertisers, or representatives of the one ormore advertisers, to deal with any content site, or ad inventoryaggregator, with which they are able to negotiate an ad inventorypurchase.

More concretely, if a credit card company wished to advertise NFL (NFL atrademark of the National Football League of New York, N.Y.) brandedcredit cards, they may wish to geographically target ads to highlightthe home team of each franchise city. The credit card company may, forexample, create an ad wrapper that specifies a targeted ad for a Bearslogo card (Bears logo a property of the Chicago Bears of Chicago, Ill.)for the Chicago metropolitan area, an Eagles logo card (Eagles logo aproperty of the Philadelphia Eagles of Philadelphia, Pa.) for thePhiladelphia metropolitan area, etc., and a default advertisementdisplaying a variety of logos and cards for non-franchisee markets. Inorder to achieve this, the ad creative materials representing thetargeted ads 501 are associated with the desired geographicallocations-in a manner as previously described-and then included withthese targeted ads, a default ad 502 is supplied and stored in DB4 of adselection node 140. The credit card company may then distribute codesimilar to that hosted by the content site in a RFRAS system. In thismanner a TAWS system advertisement allows an advertiser to packagetogether targeted and non-targeted advertisements, and to distribute theresult to any content site of its choosing.

In another embodiment, a TAWS system wrapped ad wraps together multiplewrapped ads, as is shown in FIG. 38. This may be achieved in severalways. In one embodiment, an outer-targeted ad wrapper 504 mayencapsulate multiple targeted ad wrappers 503. Which targeted ad wrapper503, held within outer-targeted ad wrapper 504, is served may bedetermined using, for example, a round-robin selection process or any adselection algorithm known in the art. In one embodiment, one of thetargeted ad wrappers 503 must be defined as the default. In this mannerthe outer-targeted ad wrapper 504 would be able to function in a manneralmost identical to the targeted ad wrapper 503. The TAWS system may inthat case check the location associated with the impression to beserved, and if none of the targeted ad wrappers 503, other than thedefault targeted ad wrapper, correspond to a given area, then thedefault targeted ad wrapper may be served.

There is no limit to how many ads or wrappers may be placed in a wrapperor how many layers deep that wrapper may go. The technologicalimplementation may be handled in various ways. For example, eachtargeted ad wrapper may be maintained as an independent unit,represented by code that would display that wrap only. Serving an adwould then be a process of stepping through the layers of the wrapper aseach level of code is displayed in an iframe, or some similar manner.Alternative to this recursive approach, when an outer-targeted adwrapper 504 is defined, the geographies covered by targetedadvertisements, their statistical weightings (if they exist), thedefaults, and all other logistics of the ads contained in the outerwrapper may be pre-calculated by DB4 of ad selection node 140. Targetedad wrappers may be highly complex in their composition, containingmultiple default ads, multiple ad campaigns for a single company, oreven multiple campaigns for multiple companies.

Various interfaces may be provided to an advertiser or representative ofan advertiser to facilitate the creation and view the contents of atargeted ad wrapper. An example of one such interface may be seen inFIGS. 39-41. FIG. 39 illustrates one example of how a targeted adwrapper may be represented. A plus sign link and wrapper titlerepresents the highest-level wrapper, Multi-Company Wrapper 510. If auser wished to view the contents of Multi-Company Wrapper 510 they mayclick on the plus sign or title and see an expanded view as displayed inFIG. 40. Here it is apparent that Multi-Company Wrapper 510 is composedof Company A Wrapper 511 and Company B Wrapper 512. Further expandingCompany A Wrapper 511 in a similar manner might result in a display suchas that shown in FIG. 41. In this example Company A Wrapper holds twotop-level ad campaigns 513 and 518, contained within are targeted ads,default ads, and a separate campaign 522 under campaign 518.

Another interface may be created such as that illustrated in FIG. 42.Interface 420 may be used in conjunction with the interfaces describedin FIGS. 6-12. After an ad has been entered into the system, anadvertiser may choose to create an ad wrapper. For convenience sake aname may be provided in a text box 550. The advertiser may be presentedwith their existing ads and wrappers categorized and presented inseparate tabs such as targeted ads tab 551, all ads tab 552, andwrappers tab 553. In this illustration the targeted ads tab 551 isselected and multiple targeted ads 554 are displayed. In one embodiment,the advertiser may select one or more of the multiple targeted ads 554and then click an add button 556. The selected ads or wrappers may thenbe displayed in the list of wrapper contents 555. In this illustrationthe targeted ad wrapper named “Multi-Company” is currently beingdefined, and it includes ads and wrappers 558-560. Ads and wrappers maybe selected in the list of wrapper contents 555 and then removed byclicking remove button 557. In order to select the default ad, an ad orwrapper in wrapper contents may be selected and set default button 561may be clicked. The currently selected default may be displayed as shownin default display box 562. Alternatively, the default ad may bedisplayed in a different color, font, or labeled by some other symbol orindicator where it is displayed in the list of wrapper contents 555.

Other conveniences may be provided by means of the interface. Forexample, hovering over the title of a targeted ad wrapper may pop open abox displaying its contents. Alternatively a “view” hyperlink may beprovided to display the same.

The code distributed to web sites for a targeted ad wrapper directs thead request to ad selection node 140. As control over ad selection anddisplay is maintained at this central and singular node, and notdistributed to the web site, the contents of an ad wrapper may beestablished and locked prior to an ad run or they may be edited duringthe ad run. In one embodiment, an advertiser may create an ad andspecify that it may be served to any geographic location. This is ageneric ad request, and the requesting advertiser may be termed ageneric advertiser. As a generic ad now exists in the system, targetedads may be wrapped with it using the TAWS system. The TAWS system mayprovide information relating to the available space for targeted ads tothe advertiser that made the generic ad request or to any otheradvertiser. This availability information may include the web sitedesignation for the default ad request, in other words indicating onwhich sites the default ad and other ads in the wrapper may be displayedon. The availability information may also include geo-targetavailability. Geo-target availability may be based on historicalstatistical data from one or more sources; this will be discussed ingreater detail later. In one embodiment child advertisers of the genericadvertiser may be, for example, the only parties allowed to see theavailability information. A child advertiser may be, for example, adivision of the company that ordered the generic ad run, a marketingbranch, an individual product, service or location for that company, orany other sectioned or associated individual or business entity relatedto the generic advertiser.

Based on the availability information, an advertiser may request atargeted ad be included in the ad wrapper. The target information mayinclude geographic, demographic, and time-based targeting.

Providing availability information may be done in a variety of ways witha variety of accuracy and convenience levels. Availability informationmay indicate only that ads may be run. It may further indicate the siteson which the ads may be run. Further still, estimations may be providedfor the number of ad impressions that will fit certain targetingprofiles. For example, if an ad wrapper has been run on a site, certainstatistical projections may be made for future ad wrappers based on theinformation recorded. This historical statistical data might includetraffic levels for a site and traffic information including time of day,geographic location, and any other relevant data collected from each adimpression. Specifically, a targeted ad request might include geo-targetinformation requesting that the ad be served into New York City only. Ifduring a previous ad campaign, using the same web site designation, 25%of the traffic came from New York City, the following equation may beused to calculate availability information:

(number of generic ads+number of possible target ads)* 0.25=number ofpossible target ads

If the generic ad run included a request for 300 impressions, it isreasonable to include 100 impressions for New York City in the targetedwrap and expect that close to that number might be served. Other meansof statistical analysis and projection, including but not limited to theuse of standard deviations and regression analysis, are known to thoseof ordinary skill in the art. So in this case, the availabilityinformation may specify 100 impressions for New York City. The accuracyof the statistical model used to present availability information willvary, among other things, with the amount of data available formodeling. Sites make experience spikes in traffic or unusual patterns ingeographic, demographic, or time of day based on anything from scheduledevents to breaking news to technical difficulties on competing sites.The more historical statistical data that is used, and the greaterinunber of predictable events that are taken into account in modelingexpectations, the more accurate the availability information will be.

After availability information has been provided and targeted adsrequested, a media buy output may be determined. The media buy output isinformation indicating what number of ad impressions should be purchasedon what web sites.

The TAWS system may be employed by and its contents arranged in a numberof ways. For example, a national-level party or political interestgroup, such as the Democratic National Party, could make an ad inventorypurchase. The details of this purchase must include both quantity andweb site designation. Web site designation again comprises a web site orgroup of categorized web sites on which the ad, and any ads wrapped withit, will be shown. The default ad supplied in the ad wrapper may be, forexample, an ad encouraging people to “get out and vote,” furtherlabeled, “sponsored by the Republican Party.” Then, within that wrapperany number of ad copies may be included for individual candidates, eachad copy including target ad run input specifying only the geography oftheir constituencies. It is worth noting that the contents of an adwrapper need not be completely established or considered locked at thepoint of creation or distribution to a content site. New ads may beadded, ad copies may be edited, ads may be removed, new ads may be setas the default, and any other aspect may in fact be changed. Once the adinventory purchase has been made and its associated generic ad runcommenced, no new code needs to be sent to the content site as allchanges are made on the TAWS system. If the generic ad run is to covermore than one content site, the target information for the targeted adsmay include specific designation for which of those sites the ad shouldbe run on. One or more interfaces may be created to assist organizationssuch as political parties in allowing the further distribution of the adinventory within an ad wrapper. For example, the organization may beable to provide login accounts to each campaign allowing them to accessad definition and reporting pages such as those previously described.These accounts would then simply include the defined ad within an adwrapper for the parent organization.

A similar system could be employed for companies such as franchises andconglomerates that may wish to provide interfaces to their subsidiaries.To call on a previous example, McDonalds® might set up a targeted adwrapper and then allow each regional market and/or franchisee to accessthe system through individual login accounts. Again, generic McDonalds®ads would be displayed except in geographic markets in which theregional management or franchisees have specified their own ads.

In the case of a business conglomerate, there is a multitude of optionsand opportunities presented by the TAWS system. Companies such as, forexample, Proctor and Gamble® already make a regular habit of varyingadvertising messages by geography. By employing a TAWS system, a companysuch as Proctor and Gamble® might achieve lower advertising costs byaggregating online media buys across product lines. Also, a companycould mimic offline advertising methods such as testing price elasticityover different geographic locations, varying the product messages bylocation, practicing product differentiation where necessary, andrunning localized product introductions. Similar capabilities areavailable in the RFRAS system, but using a TAWS system each individualcompany may maintain control over the entirety of the media buyingprocess.

Many different criteria and methods for targeting advertisements withthe TAWS system have been discussed, with varying levels of desirabilityand value to advertisers. Little has been said of purchase and paymentmethods for generic and targeted ads, but there are numerouspossibilities. For any systems described herein ad price may be set perimpression, vary based on the level of targeting, may be priced throughan auction process, or any other method of ad pricing known in the art.

Subject and Key Word Targetting

The subject matter surrounding and context in which an advertisement isreceived can be as important as geographic targeting, demographictargeting, or any other sort of target information. FIG. 43 illustratesan interface 600 for creating a subject identifier, based on keywords.First, for future ease of use and identification, the user may supply atarget name 602. Input boxes 604 and 606 may be provided for the entryof target keywords and banned keywords. When a keyword to target oravoid is selected and added by the user, it is displayed in theappropriate keyword list, target list 608 or avoid list 610, at theright. Each entry in these lists may also have an associated delete link612. When clicked, delete link 612 removes the entry from the list. Inanother embodiment, the user may be presented with a predetermined listof subject-based keywords. Instead of allowing the user to add anykeyword to the target list and avoid list, they may in this embodimentbe limited to the predetermined list. These keywords or subjects may betermed target references, banned references, or collectively termedkeyword references.

There are four general methods of assigning and associating subjects tothe page on which an ad will appear. The most accurate methods, but mosttime consuming and least scalable, require human interaction. In oneembodiment, the burden of human interaction may be placed upon the website on which the ad will be displayed. In another embodiment, theburden of human interaction may be placed upon the ad server company. Inanother embodiment, the burden of human interaction may be placed on theend advertiser. In another embodiment, the ad server may automaticallyprocess the subject of the page.

In the embodiment wherein the human interaction takes place at the website, when a new page is going up, or when the contents of a pagechange, the ad request embedded on the page may be manipulated toreflect the new page subject matter. For example, alphanumeric valuesmay be added to the query string of the ad request URL, such as“http://www.ad-server.com/adrequest.jsp?subject=C2,C3”. A list of validalphanumeric values may be supplied to the web site, and might includesuch values as C2 representing that the subject of the page is “babies,”C3 representing “parenting,” and LI representing “divorce.” In thisembodiment, the interface 600 may include these values and alphanumericcodes as the predetermined list. Other information may be sent is thismanner as well. For example, a code may be, for example, supplied torepresent the author of the article on the page or the position of theadvertisement on the page.

In the embodiment wherein the human interaction takes place at the adserver company, the ad request is associated with the page on which itoriginated. This may be supplied in full or in part in the request forthe advertisement, such as“http://www.ad-server.com/adrequest.aspx?requestpage=http://www.website.com/page.html”For each new request page received at the ad server, a person may go tothat page and assign the codes to future requests received from thatpage. In this embodiment, it must be taken into account that pages maykeep the same URL, but change content. Therefore, it may be useful toreview the assigned codes on a periodic basis, or when it is indicatedthat content has been updated.

The embodiment wherein the human interaction takes place at the endadvertiser is quite similar. In this embodiment the ad server system maybe either RFRAS or TAWS. Each advertiser that has defined ads that maybe served may be given the ability to review each new page and assigncodes. Alternatively, the advertiser may have an interface that allowsthem to specify first whether they wish to serve or not on the page, andsecond which ad copy they would like to serve. Further details andembodiments relating to advertiser selected pages is discussed in moredetail below, see FIG. 46.

FIG. 44 illustrates the embodiment wherein the ad server mayautomatically process the subject of the requesting page. First, an adtag is created 622 that includes the page on which it will originate itsrequest. When the page on which the tag is hosted is viewed, an adrequest is received 624 at the ad selection node 140. At the adselection node it is determined whether this is the first time a requestis being received from the requesting page 626. As was previously noted,content may change in a page, so the determination of whether this isthe first request from the requesting page may take into account aperiodic resetting. After a set period of time, the ad server mayindicate this is the first request from the page even if the page hasbeen requested before, thereby giving the opportunity to reprocess thesubject of the page. lfthis is the first time a request has beenreceived from the requesting page, the ad server retrieves the contentof the requesting page 628.

The content retrieved from the requesting page is then processed 630.Content may be processed in a wide variety of ways. One simple approachwould be to simply index the text of the content and consider each wordto be a keyword. Many commercial and proprietary searching, indexing,and cataloging means are known in the art, and any of these may beemployed to process the content of the requesting page. The results ofthe processing are cached in a database at ad selection node 140. Thedatabase associates the requesting page with the processed results,allowing these results to be used for subsequent ad requests from therequesting page 634.

In one embodiment, ad selection node 140 may cache a copy of therequesting page 628. This may be performed for review by advertisers. Inanother embodiment, the caching may be performed to provide a visualdisplay of page-level availability information for an existing adwrapper. With this cached information available to advertisers,satisfaction or approval information may be collected indicatingapproval or disapproval of the subject and keyword targeting system. Inone embodiment, the payment to a web site for used ad inventory may bebased in part on the approval information. In another embodiment,approval information may be required prior to the ad being served.

Advertiser Selection of Placement

FIG. 45 illustrates a web page on a standard web site as shown at 640.The web page 640 may contain one or more of the elements shown includinga title 642, navigation elements 646, page content 647, or a headline644. For the purposes of this embodiment, the two necessary elements areadvertisement space 648, and page specific invitation to advertise link649.

Any individual viewing web page 640 may, for example, wish to advertisea product or service, or broadcast a desired commercial, personal orpolitical message in the space available for advertising, as representedby advertisement space 648. Advertisement space 648 may be in the formof an area dedicated to a banner, tower, or some other form ofadvertisement included in the page layout, or may be in the form of aninterstitial advertisement or pop-up ad triggered by web page 640. FIG.46 illustrates one embodiment of the process by which the individualcreates or selects a page specific advertisement.

A page specific invitation to advertise link 649 provides the individualviewing that specific web page with the opportunity to fill theadvertisement space 648, thereby advertising the ad availability 652.The page specific invitation to advertise link 649 may be in the form ofa text hyperlink, a button, or any other means of directing theindividual to a different web resource known in the art.

In one embodiment is a relationship exists between the request toadvertise and the specific web page on which the request originates. Aunique identifying key associates the ad that is to be specified fordisplay with the specific web page. In one embodiment, this may beachieved through the use of a randomly generated global uniqueidentifier (GUID) that is created for each new web page 640. In anotherembodiment, the universal resource identifier (URI) for web page 640 isused. Use of an LRI allows the use of a preexisting unique identifier.The GUID or URI must be included in the request to advertise via thepage specific invitation to advertise link 649.

The individual makes a page specific request to advertise 654. As the adserver processing the page specific ad requests may display ads on manypages of a site or many pages on many sites, and as the individual maywish to advertise on another page or site in the network, an account canbe maintained for each individual that is an advertiser, or potentialadvertiser, on the network. Maintaining an account allows the advertiserto avoid entering certain information on a repeated basis such aspersonal identification infoimation, billing infoimation, and evenspecific ad details. In order to determine whether the individual has anexisting advertiser account 656, a login screen may be presented afterthe advertiser selects the page on which they want to advertise 654. Ifan account exists, the advertiser logs in 658. As an existingadvertiser, there may already be defined advertisements associated withthe account. The logged in advertiser may then select an existing ad orcreate a new ad 660 to be displayed on the selected web page 640. Ifnoaccount exists, account information may be entered and a new accountcreated 662. A new advertisement is then created by the new advertiser664. The ad may be created and include any of the targeting propertiesdescribed in the RFRAS system and TAWS above.

As multiple advertisers may find advertisement space 648 on the samespecific web page 640 attractive, providing an auction for theadvertising space provides one possible model to handle pricing. In oneembodiment, each new advertiser that indicates interest in advertisingon a specific web page is presented with an incrementally higher CPM. Inone embodiment, if they choose to accept the higher CPM, each advertiserthat has been displaced from that advertising space is notified that thespace is available at a higher CPM.

In one embodiment a profile is maintained for each advertiser account.Information held in the profile may include, but is not limited to, areaof business, specific web sites selected for advertising, URis selectedfor advertising, subject or keywords in the content at each selected URI(information obtained using the scanning process described previously),a list of subject and keywords selected for targeting specific ads, anda list of subject and keywords selected for targeting ads in general.

When a new web page is added to the ad server network, this additionmay, in one embodiment, trigger recommendations to an existing accountbased on the profile collected for this account. For example, if theprofile for a car manufacturer indicates that they have regularlyadvertised on a specific web site, when a new article is posted on thisweb site the system may alert them off this addition. In another similarexample, if the profile for a car manufacturer indicates that they haveadvertised on pages where a competitor's brand name and car model typeis displayed, if a new page exhibiting these criteria is added to the adserver network they may be alerted of this addition.

In one embodiment, the collected profiles are not viewed in isolation,but in comparison with other profiles using Bayesian or non-Bayesianstatistical models. For example, if the profiles for two law firmsindicated similar areas of business, or if the two firms hadhistorically selected similar sites and web pages on which to advertise,the ad server might alert one when the other selects a page on which toadvertise. In one embodiment, the ad server providing the page specificad placement is a RFRAS. In one embodiment, the ad displayed on thespecifically selected page is a targeted ad wrapper.

The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms withoutdeparting from its spirit or essential characteristics. The describedembodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrativeand not restrictive.

1. A method for targeting advertising over a network, comprising:requesting content at a user node from a content provider node; sendingthe content from the content provider node to the user node, the contentincluding an ad request; sending the ad request from the user node to aright of first refusal ad service; determining a demographiccorresponding to the user node; determining in response to the adrequest whether an ad in inventory at the right of first refusal adservice is appropriate to the determined demographic; and when no ad inthe inventory at the right of first refusal ad service is appropriate tothe determined demographic: identifying the content provider node at theright of first refusal ad service based on the ad request; determining adefault ad service based on the identified content provider node, thedefault ad service being independent, separate, and distinct from theright of first refusal ad service; sending a pass request from the rightof first refusal ad service to the default ad service; forwarding the adrequest from the content provider node to the default ad service inresponse to the pass request; and serving a default ad service ad fromthe default ad service to the user node in response to the forwarded adrequest.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising delivering anappropriate ad to the user node from the right of first refusal adservice when an ad in the inventory at the right of first refusal adservice is appropriate to the determined demographic.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the determining a demographic comprises determining alocation associated with the user node.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the pass request comprises demographic identifying informationassociated with the determined demographic.
 5. A system for providingtargeted ads over a network, comprising: a user node; a content providernode in communication with the user node via a network; a right of firstrefusal ad service node in communication with the user node and thecontent provider node via the network; a default ad service node incommunication with the user node, the content provider node, and theright of first refusal ad service node via a network, the default adservice node being independent, separate, and distinct from the right offirst refusal ad service node; wherein the user node, the contentprovider node, the right of first refusal ad service node, and thedefault ad service node are operable in combination to: request contentat the user node from the content provider node; send the content fromthe content provider node to the user node, the content including an adrequest; send the ad request from the user node to the right of firstrefusal ad service node; determine a demographic corresponding to theuser node at the right of first refusal ad service node; determine inresponse to the ad request whether an ad in inventory at the right offirst refusal ad service node is appropriate to the determineddemographic; and wherein when no ad in the inventory at the right offirst refusal ad service node is appropriate to the determineddemographic: identify the content provider node at the right of firstrefusal ad service based on the ad request; determine a default adservice node based on the identified content provider node, the defaultad service node being independent, separate, and distinct from the rightof first refusal ad service node; send a pass request from the right offirst refusal ad service node to the default ad service node; forwardthe ad request from the content provider node to the default ad servicenode in response to the pass request; and serve a default ad service adfrom the default ad service node to the user node in response to theforwarded ad request.
 6. The system of claim 5, further comprisingdelivering an appropriate ad to the user node from the right of firstrefusal ad service when an ad in the inventory at the right of firstrefusal ad service is appropriate to the determined demographic.
 7. Thesystem of claim 5, wherein a demographic comprises being operable todetermine a location associated with the user node.
 8. The system ofclaim 5, wherein the pass request comprises demographic identifyinginformation associated with the determined demographic.
 9. Anon-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computerexecutable instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause theprocessor to perform a method of targeting advertising over a network,comprising: requesting content at a user node from a content providernode; sending the content from the content provider node to the usernode, the content including an ad request; sending the ad request fromthe user node to a right of first refusal ad service; determining ademographic corresponding to the user node; determining in response tothe ad request whether an ad in inventory at the right of first refusalad service is appropriate to the determined demographic; and when no adin the inventory at the right of first refusal ad service is appropriateto the determined demographic: identifying the content provider node atthe right of first refusal ad service based on the ad request;determining a default ad service based on the identified contentprovider node, the default ad service being independent, separate, anddistinct from the right of first refusal ad service; sending a passrequest from the right of first refusal ad service to the default adservice; forwarding the ad request from the content provider node to thedefault ad service in response to the pass request; and serving adefault ad service ad from the default ad service to the user node inresponse to the forwarded ad request.
 10. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising delivering anappropriate ad to the user node from the right of first refusal adservice node when an ad in the inventory at the right of first refusalad service node is appropriate to the determined demographic.
 11. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein thedetermining a demographic comprises determining a location associatedwith the user node.
 12. The non-transitory computer readable storagemedium of claim 9, wherein the pass request comprises demographicidentifying information associated with the determined demographic.